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

[welcome_home]

[ Nanako's eyes go wide when she spots him here, her expression turning delighted as she bounces up to him, her own book from home clutched in her arms. ]

Chikusa! You came! I didn't know you were invited, too!

[kokuyoyo]

[Oh, shit, small child alert. Chikusa stops hoarding food for a second to blink down at her.]

Mm. I got a message on my phone.

[And there was free food, so...]

...You also brought a book.

[welcome_home]

[ Do you need alerts for that, Chikusa?

She smiles and nods at him, although she giggles at his observation. ]

Yeah! Because it's a book party, right? Did you bring one, too?

[kokuyoyo]

[He 100% needs alerts for that. Small children like Nanako are strange and dangerous, with their hugs and other weird things. He has to keep a look out. You know, prepare himself.]

[At her question, his gaze seems to drift off a little bit before he seems to come to.]

Ah... I guess so.

[Not counting the one he's using to brace his plate.]

What did you bring...?

[welcome_home]

[ Nanako proudly holds up her own book. ]

This one! It's my favorite! I even dressed up to match it, see?

[ And she gestures to her pink raincoat and the yellow umbrella she brought with her as a prop. ]

[kokuyoyo]

...Oh. That... explains a lot.

[You know, like, everything. An umbrella had seemed like a weird thing to carry, both with the weather being fairly decent and with it being indoors. Which reminds him...]

You really like this kind of dressing up stuff... Don't you? Like when we were at that department store... And you had a detective outfit...

[And Chikusa eventually got a detective outfit himself. Which. He admittedly still has. It just feels like he's doing something wrong if he throws out costumes...? Eh, he's probably just thrifty.]

[welcome_home]

Yeah! [ Her eyes light up. ] Detective Loveline! That one's my favorite!

Don't you like dressing up, Chikusa? [ She remembers him doing it with her that one time, after all. ]

[kokuyoyo]

I... Mm.

[Now that someone's actually upfront asked him... Chikusa can't entirely say he's sure or not, and his gaze once again drifts off to focus on nothing in particular. Chikusa can't say the thought has ever really occurred to him. After all, dressing up is a lot of work even when it's just gathering the appropriate clothing for whatever one is dressing up as. He can't even imagine actually having to make something that doesn't fit exactly the mental image one is looking for, which is almost an inevitability when it comes to stuff like cosplaying from that show Nanako seems enamored with.]

[...At the same time...]

[Well. Thinking about it, Chikusa has to admit that he's picked up a decent amount of costumes. More than he ever would have otherwise, he thinks. There's the police uniforms he stole for himself and Ken, the very detective outfit that Nanako got him some time back, the garish pink and red heart monstrosity that Minako convinced him to wear... Shit. He's pretty sure that there's not even a single memory of him being in an actual school attending an actual class alongside Ken, so why the hell do they have school uniforms? Why the hell do they have Japanese school uniforms, summer and winter edition?]

[Is this why he's never really found it awkward to dress up in costume? That he's so easily gone along with dress up whims? For a brief second, his brain tries to remember the other person that seemed to always be a part of those dress up memories, the one him and Ken would almost seem to...]

[That brief churn of nauseous anxiety might actually ping through to Nanako for a split second, watered down as emotions so often seem to be when coming from Chikusa in a way that's even more notable with his compared to the usual shinki bond. Just like that, it's gone, and he blinks down at Nanako again.]

...Yeah, I guess I do.

[It's one of the only answers that make sense. He just recently got a hobby, maybe he just didn't realize at the time what the hell it was to 'like' a hobby like that.]

[welcome_home]

[ She does feel that momentary sting and blinks up at him, a little worried if he's okay, because he rarely lets things like that show on his face, so sometimes it's real hard to guess what he's thinking about.

Guessing it might not have been good isn't too hard when she can feel that from him, leading to her reaching out and patting his arm again. ]

We can do it again sometime, if you want?

[kokuyoyo]

[...Oh, she's patting him. Chikusa blinks down at her tiny little hand against his matchstick of an arm. He can't really see why, but... Oh well. He guesses it doesn't matter. So long as it makes her happy, or... whatever.]

...Sure. But... I don't know what to dress up as.

[Every costume he's ever picked up has often been for a particular purpose, whether that's breaking into a cop headquarters or following the whims of a child.]

[welcome_home]

Mmm, well, maybe you need to pick one that feels right with whatever you want to do? Or, since it's a reading day, you could pick an outfit to be someone in a book you like!

[kokuyoyo]

...Feels right...

[Another moment of spacing out occurs as Chikusa tries to think on what that even means. Have any of the outfits he's worn in particular 'felt right'? He doesn't think any one of them in particular didn't feel... Well. As though he wasn't used to it. Hrm.]

[He snaps out of it shortly.]

..Do you think those kind of outfits would be hard to get a hold of?

[welcome_home]

I can help you find them, if you want?

[ She sounds excited to offer, in fact. ]

What kind do you want to look for, Chikusa?

[kokuyoyo]

[...Well, she did find that detective outfit. So Chikusa guesses, if he had to pick anyone, he could do worse than a... small... child... He thinks carefully for a moment.]

...Maybe... someone from some of the stuff I read... Since some of them are comics, then it would be easier to figure out the visuals...

[And also maybe there's already outfits premade somewhere. Which is why Chikusa is sURE SETTING HIS FOOD DOWN TO PULL OUT A SHOUJO MANGA]

[listen he needs references in his writing]

[welcome_home]

[ Her eyes light up when he pulls out a manga. She's quickly pressing closer to peer over at it, trying to see what he has. ]

Oh! What kind do you like reading? What kind of costumes do they wear?

[kokuyoyo]

[...Maybe they should, like... find a table to sit at...? Naaaaaah. Chikusa thinks it's way easier for him to just... slowly lower down into a crouch so that Nanako can get a better look at the manga he has in his hands. It's actually the second volume... which admittedly shows off a little more of the cast for this particular series.]

...I've been reading... romance stories, I guess. I have more than this one... but it caught my attention because it's about a random human girl... who ends up becoming a god when the god ditches the responsibility on her.

[...So, you know. Relevant to their entire situation.]

But the dog guardian who's been waiting at the shrine doesn't want to accept her as the god... Oh. And he's a handsome guy. [Because it's a shoujo.] There's also other guys... like this villain, or this tengu and a snake spirit...

[So, you know. It's basically Kamisama Kiss.]

They're mostly traditional, but there's other stuff...? Like the snake is an idol...

[welcome_home]

[ I'm SO GLAD you picked Kamisama Kiss

Nanako's mouth drops open as she listens, fascinated. ]

A snake can be an idol? Really?

[kokuyoyo]

I mean... It's a comic. So I guess it can be anything it wants to be.

[Chikusa pauses, blinking at the sheer amount of weirdos at this one party.]

...Maybe here too... since it makes as much sense as anything else...

[Hibiki is an idol, after all, and Chikusa doesn't really see the appeal there. Then again, he doesn't see the appeal in most idols. He's co-dependently married to his boyfriend and also gay, so the window is narrow.]

...But this one can turn into a human for a while. So he hides that he's a snake.

[welcome_home]

Ohhhh! I see! [ Sort of. ] That seems like a fun thing to be an idol! Even if being an idol is really hard work...

[ ...Speaking from experience much? ]

[kokuyoyo]

It sounds tiresome and annoying.

[Which is the least surprising thing to come out of Chikusa's mouth ever.]

...So I don't think I'd want to be the idol.

[welcome_home]

[ That makes her giggle, because yes, that is the most Chikusa answer. ]

It's not that bad. You have to practice a lot to be really good at it, though. but getting to get up in front of everyone and making them all really happy feels like the best thing ever! Even if that's a little scary, too...

[kokuyoyo]

...Can't relate.

[Chikusa still has no idea what he's doing about his own happiness, and what that even feels like, actually. Other people can wait their fucking turn, as far as he's concerned.]

And it still feels like too much work. Although I guess I don't... have to do idol training when dressing up...