thenearshore | Book Party [ota]

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Book Party [ota]

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jeez, he really must be obvious. Garry jolts a little when spoken to, not really expecting it, before he manages to smile down at Romeo. Kids do pick up on these kinds of things very easily, he supposes...

"Oh, I am." He thinks, anyway. "I suppose I'm just a little... anxious, perhaps? I haven't the faintest idea why."

"Anxious?" Romeo frowned sadly, he didn't want anyone to be all anxious! Parties were meant to be fun and he didn't want anyone to be scared here!

But if Garry didn't know why... That was tricky. It was hard to keep your spirits up if you weren't sure what was making them not up!

"Just a little twitchy," he says, downplaying his emotions even as he reaches over to pat Romeo's hair. "It might just be a bad day. Sometimes, people's brains feel emotions for no reason, and they just have to deal with that." Granted, most of that is mental illness, but...

"It might be because of what has happened lately, too. It might be leftover emotions, you know?"

People feel emotions for no reason? That was confusing. It was hard enough keeping peoples spirits up when you knew what was wrong and could help them! But if people just felt things for no reason whatsoever... How could you keep your friends spirits up when they just felt things?

Romeo frowned, it might be that lots of bad things had happened. That there's still bad feelings left over. "Do you want to know how to keep your spirits up, mister Garry?"

One day, he suspects this place might need a counselor or therapist, both to educate people who might not otherwise know about things like mental health or just... desperately need the help. For now, he just nods slightly. He'll keep things simple with the kids.

"Oh, does that mean you have an idea of what to do?"

"Yes! My friend told me in my memory dream!"

Romeo smiled at him and got closer, reaching out for his hand. "He said that there is only one day like this in you're entire life so whatever happens you got to keep living and keep your spirits up and when it's hard to keep them up. Then you do this!"

He punched the air, pulling Garry's hand up into the air. That's how you do it, how you keep your spirits up when everything around you is bad and scary!

"Whoa-" Well, that's one way to distract his mind from the weird surge of anxiety he's going through. Garry laughs a little bit in surprise when his hand is pulled upwards along with Romeo's.

"I see! So you just have to remember that and raise your fist high like this, is that right? Your friend seems like he's really smart."

Romeo nodded, that's exactly right! "Whenever you feel sad just raise your fist high and that makes your spirits go up too!" It's a foolproof method! Romeo nodded with a grin.

"He is! I don't got many memories of him but he is kind and brave and really smart!"

"Then, I'll be sure to remember that for the future." Garry isn't entirely sure it will work for him, but, well... He'll just figure things out. In the meantime, talking is helping at least distract his brain, and he'll take that if nothing else.

"He definitely sounds like it. Maybe one day he'll even appear here." Goodness knows so many other people have showed up around the place. "Would you want that?"

"I would." Romeo nodded with big eyes, "I would really like to see him again! But it might... If he was a shinki he wouldn't know me at all so I would have to be very careful and if he was a god he would have to be really careful because I can't push my head to think too much about him because it's dangerous!"

So even though he would really like to see the friend he had sworn eternal friendship with it would be a worrying thing as well.

Ah. And there's the big problem, the one that all shinki have to deal with here. Some people seem to recognize each other, but, more often than not...

"Well, I suppose it's something you can deal with if it ever happens," he says gently. "In the meanwhile, you have a lot of other friends who are here, don't you? Look at how many people came to this party."

"I do! I have lots and lots of friends and I'm so glad they all came to this party!" It was a good thing, it was nice to see all his friends being happy and having fun! He was very lucky to know so many nice and kind people here! Even all the grown ups!

In his very few memories of before the heavens the grown ups had harsh hands, mean words and mocking laughter. There was no one like that here. They were all kind and taught Romeo and helped him and Romeo was happy to call them all friends!

"There you go." That's a much better train of thought to follow than the previous one, he must say, and Garry smiles back to reach over and pat Romeo's head. "Then it's best to focus on all the good things you have and the people you know. I'm sure if your friend could see how happy you were here, he'd be happy as well. Right?"

"I think he would be!" Romeo just hopes... He's worried that his friend is still in that bad place with those mean grown ups. It would be better if he were here where everyone was kind and friendly.

"I think he would be very happy if he could see all of this." He seemed like a really good friend and one who would be happy to know that Romeo had friends around him.

"It's definitely a very nice place to be." Even with some of the more... antagonistic people who end up in the Far shore. Even with the threat of the ayakashi, or the cult. Even with all the frankly bizarre things that happen from time to time... Garry has to say that it's nice most of the time, and that's really all one can ask for in life.

Getting an idea, he holds up one finger. "Have you thought about making a bookmark for your friend, if he did show up here?"

It is a nice place to be and Romeo is glad all of the time that he gets to be here with his friends. He grins at Garry's suggestion.

"That's a really good idea! Elfnein helped me write a letter to him but I could make him a bookmark too to go with it!"

"Even if he doesn't remember you right away, I'm sure a welcome gift like that would really cheer him up after appearing in an unfamiliar place." Actually, now that he thinks about it... Garry pauses, anxiety briefly forgotten as an idea strikes him.

"I wonder if a welcome box of some sort wouldn't be nice for everyone..."

Romeo thinks it would too! Even if he didn't remember Romeo or their vow of friendship something nice like a bookmark would make him feel happy, Romeo was sure of it.

At Garry's idea his grin grew. "A welcome box? Full of nice things that we make to say hello to new people?"

Because that was an amazing idea!

"Yes, that's right." If he can just... keep ignoring that prickling feeling at the back of his neck, this is a great idea to carry out with. Something to match what Ginia herself suggested not that long ago.

"We can put in helpful books, for people who aren't familiar with Japanese or how to use a phone, along with maybe fun things like your bookmarks and snacks. Ah, they'd have to be the kind that could stay a while, I think, but..."

"They can be sweet things, like the ones in wrappers!" They lasted quite a long time! "We could put in the leaflets that people already made and maybe books on what all the strange things on the Near Shore are like the cars and the trains and the air planes." Because they had all been very confusing to Romeo when he had first arrived, especially since he had been whisked off to Capya land almost straight away.

He likes this idea though, he's sure other people will help too!

There are a lot of things which are sweet and wrapped up... Well, Garry figures it can all be figured out one way or the other. "I think something to help people figure out how to use their phones is definitely important. Once they learn how to use some of the searching engines on there, that should help them figure out how to learn a lot more." So that these theoretical welcome bags won't become too burdensome...

"Do you have a favorite kind of sweet?"

"Oh yes, if we teach people how to use the phones and use the library on the internet then they will be able to find out everything!"

It would make things a lot less confusing! Romeo hadn't known how to use his phone at all until Shin and Adrian had shown him!

A favourite sweet was a very tricky question because the answer is all of them. "I like mochi a lot but I think they will be too sticky to go in bags unless you can get them in wrappers too!"

"That's right!" Of course, with that in mind, he'll have to really think carefully on what things might not be obvious to someone to whom cell phones are completely new. He hadn't had too much difficulty himself in figuring them out, but that didn't mean everyone would have so easy a time.

Considering mochi, he taps his finer against his arm. "Hm. That might be a little difficult, it's true... We'll have to see if they come pre-packaged. I bet there are convenient stores which have a lot of good snacks we could try."

"I think there will be! There are lots of shops and they sell so many things!" It sometimes is just amazing how much food they have and how many there are and how many people that means there must be to eat all that food!

"We can ask people what their favourites are too! So we make the best choice!"

Research!

"That's a good idea! I mean, with how many people there are here, there has to be a favorite of some kind, right?" Whether it's the cheapest, or just something really popular... Garry is positive about that.

"And we can go down and see what kind of snacks are usually around, and which people down in the Near Shore buy, too."

Book Party [ota]

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