destinystrings | Autumn Festival (OPEN)

Entry tags:

Autumn Festival (OPEN)

Who: EVERYONE
Where: Virgo Ward
Summary: Autumn Festival Log! You're all invited!
Warnings: MELONS
Ahh Autumn. The time for harvest, and the normal national holiday that falls on the 24th and 25th. Demons? Angels? Magic? Well nothing's been put on pause, but even the Anoli need to relax once in a while...

With that free time, what's a newcomer like you to do?

Well Hinoto-Ri has much to offer! As they seem to be the only standing city in...well, anywhere, they've tried to merge and adapt as many festivals around the world as they can.

Ergo this Fall festival is a mixture of everything the world could offer. Corn on the cob, Pumpkins, Yaki Imo (Oven-Roasted Sweet Potatoes), Ramen stands, Falafel, caramelized apples...

A giant dragon is tied down in the middle of the waters. At night, you can see a few pixies hover close to it, keeping other monsters at bay. The streets have been decorated as well.

But most importantly, the upper Virgo Ward has been turned in a giant festival area...even more so than usual! Now the millions of stalls don't just try to sell things to you, they sell things to you thematically with this fall! Giant pumpkins and fresh produce made in Libra and Capricorn..did you know that Capicorn has an amazing giant apple orchid, protected by the office of Wands and Swords? Try out some free samples! One taste is enough to convince you that having Persona to irrigate the fields ass a crispness to the fruit..right? Winter outfits...hats are in this year! Listen to some of the new music groups, and get pumped for the upcoming movies!

There is giant mooncake in the middle of all the tents and stalls. Don't worry about the money! Everything's free today! It is a time for sharing and family and...

...being thankful for what you have. No matter how small it might be.

For a city of survivors, Hinoto-Ri is certainly trying to have a good time.

You should join them.

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Hey, she's no more a member than Ken is... which... might actually be true. But regardless, she just respects him as a friend and invaluable teammate. A slightly eccentric one who's fun to tease now and again.

"...I don't think it's worth risking all that again for another." She can just go to a pet store and buy one if she feels the urge to give him his own fish fanclub.

And name a goldfish after.

He snorts. He has to agree with her on that one, going back would be risky business, though there are other stalls. He's still not sure who won the round: her or the fish. ('Did you see that, Shinji?')

He waits for her to take the lead. She's the one who wanted to go to the festival, not him.

"Wouldn't want another little kid to knock you down." It sounds mocking, but there's of more of a good-natured sense to it underneath. He has a reputation to uphold, you know. Can't just start saving people when they feel like having a bizarre moment of weakness. He doesn't have to save idiots.

"You'd catch me again if that happened." Just like he'd fix her sandals if she broke one. Or headbutt a shady guy if she got into trouble. He may say he wouldn't save an idiot, but she has his number by now.

She places Akihiko into the purse she's been wearing so he won't be swung around too much as they explore the festival. Then, she reaches for Shinjiro's hand. "Are you hungry? There's great food around here! And Minato's been doing karaoke..." She got a video of that earlier, for posterity.

Edited 2012-09-27 20:02 (UTC)

He stares at her soundly as though to challenge her assumptions, but ends up just shrugging his shoulders. "Food's fine." She may have to dig his hand out of his coat pocket though. It's trying very hard to not betray its master while in public. He'll eventually let her have it if she insists, though.

"And I think your brother's still over there." Looking foolish, he might add. Minato's singing was fine; his ridiculous dance-like flourishes were not. He had passed Minato on his way here, and had stayed just long enough for the two of them acknowledge each other's presence. Shinjiro knew better than to linger there for very long.

If she can't have his hand, she'll just take his arm. That's how she rolls.

"It's funny how outgoing he is when he wants to be." One of the few instances when they really display their family similarity. Even though it's the first time she's actually seen it from the grown-up version, she'd expected it. She'd met Elizabeth and seen how well he got along with her. And in the distant past, he'd imitated enough of her childhood antics when prompted for her to know he has a silly side.

She can have his arm without protest.

He recalls where some of the food stalls are—might have to stop at the booths where they're displaying the fresh produce to see if there's anything decent to take home later when he has a mind to ditch the place and retreat back to the apartments—and starts to walk in that direction.

"You don't sound surprised."

She's quiet for a moment. It's not often that she speaks about her past with anyone. Even her conversations with Minato have danced around many things, things they'd rather leave unsaid. But Shinjiro has told her some of his memories already... good ones and bad ones. If there's a person worth sharing with, it's him.

"I don't remember everything clearly, but I know I got us both in a lot of trouble back then. But he never complained about anything."

Which meant either he was cowed into silence, or he enjoyed it too. She's hoping for the latter. "...Sometimes he'd even come up with plans before I could. Mom and Dad always thought it was my fault anyway, though." She grins. "He was shyer around strangers... but never with me."

If Shinjiro had the ability to tell what she was thinking, he would have said that he doubted Minato had been cowed into anything. When you've been beaten into silence, by other people or by your life's circumstances, you often lose the love and enthusiasm you had for the things you used to get excited about, learned to deny those things as you started to subdue the part of yourself that had gotten you hurt in the first place. Her brother wouldn't be doing the surprisingly outgoing things he did if silence had been forced upon him. At least, not as easily as he seemed to. Unless he had grown and rose above it, of course, but had Shinjiro been able to bet on it, that's not the conclusion he would have come to. Being forced into submission wasn't much of an Arisato trait anyway.

He does feel a bit guilty when she goes quiet like that. His life is full of plenty of things that he doesn't talk about. Aki's the same way. They rarely brought up Miki after she died. Never talked about the parents they couldn't remember. It just wasn't done. But when it was, you learned a few things. He can compare the memories to the blue-haired kid monopolizing the karaoke machine and come to a few conclusions.

"They probably thought it was your fault because you taught him everything." Her memories tell him that he's probably an intelligent guy. Quiet enough that he knew how to observe (though Shinjiro thinks he's already seen that). Absorb the information you saw and apply it on your own when it was to your benefit later. Get your little sister in trouble. Though maybe she had willingly followed along. Not like she had ever stopped being a goddamn pain.

Also hard to be painfully shy around someone who would put the textbook definition of outgoing to shame. Especially when you were a little kid, lacking adult inhibitions.

"They were probably right." She's still smiling, not to hide but out of sheer fond remembrance. Those memories aren't as hard anymore, not when she can go find him and create new ones whenever she wants. Their parents are still mostly-faceless voices, but...

"He followed me everywhere. I thought I was looking after him, but now, I think really it was the opposite." He was the older brother, after all.

He still stands by his previous thought.

"Probably." That's what Minato was supposed to do, older or not. And it looks like her brother had done his job right. "Look away for a minute and you're halfway into something you shouldn't."

Not an ounce of self-preservation where it counts.

What use is self-preservation if it preserves yourself at the cost of someone else?

Of course, it's not situations like that he's complaining about, but regardless.

"You never really know if it's something you shouldn't until you try, right? Life's no fun if you avoid all the risks."

Not much room for "fun" in his vocabulary, remember?

He has his own thought about her reply, of course. Though he knows what she's referring to. Risks aren't something he likes to take anymore. You looked ahead, surveyed the situation, and then decided whether you were able to accept the risks if the worst occurred.

But that wasn't what they were talking about.

He just snorts instead. Maybe he should have let her terrify the fish. That'd be an adventure for her.

Not that he would have let her.

"Depends where you draw the line."

Well....

"I don't believe in drawing it so soon that you end up giving up something you really want."

And to really make the point that her metaphors have been dancing around even more super obvious, she leans her head against his shoulder. ~~Somewhat less dramatically than in the icon.~~

~~Only somewhat?~~

He sighs. He lets her have his arm and she goes right on ahead and hijacks his entire shoulder. To his credit, there's only a brief moment of pause as he continues to walk, catching sight of the food stalls up ahead. His body won't be his at all by the hour's end. But he gets her point. He gets it. Doesn't mean he agrees with all her metaphors and similes and shit, but he gets it.

"Just be careful," he says. She should walk, not run towards those ridiculous goals she has. Then at least she'll have the an easier time stopping and turning back if she ever discovers that those goals aren't as worth pursuing as she thought. With less energy spent, it would hurt less, and she'd have a better chance of catching herself without falling. "You're clumsier than I remember."

Which isn't really true. But she can lose her balance too, sometimes, as a helpful little boy showed him today. And then, as if to prove his point, he lets a hand escape from its pocket—kind of hard when you've got someone attached to your arm, but he supposes she can revel in making his life difficult—and finds her hand. He might pull it down with him into his coat pocket soon enough. Think of it as a compromise and a risk he's willing to confront. Slowly, but eventually. She's not always going to be in a position where someone can pull her back when she's headed in wrong damn direction.

"Everyone has their off days. Even you." She abandons the metaphor to attack today's incident more directly. She can remember many times he'd been bowled over by Shadows in Tartarus, the same as the rest of them. "But, that's why it's better to go somewhere in pairs, right? So we can help each other out."

She squeezes his fingers, smiling brightly. They're on a date whether he'd admit to it or not and everything is right with the world. If this is the wrong direction, there's no reason she wants to find the right one.

'Off days, huh?'' He shoots her a look as if to challenge that idea. All these metaphors are going to spiral into something ridiculous sometime or another. He doesn't directly address her last comment, gesturing to the food stands instead.

"What do you want?"

He might not admit they're on a date, but on the other hand, he wouldn't deny it either. He'd most likely just not say anything at all. Let people figure it out on their own. They have brains, so they can goddamn make use of them. He doesn't exist to cater to someone's expositional needs, nor is he here to satisfy anyone's nagging curiosity.

"...I'm not sure. It all looks good." And probably if she were left alone she'd end up sampling every stand. She may have a small stomach according to Akihiko, but she also has a fast metabolism. It takes work to have this much energy. "What do you want? Dinner, or just a snack?"

He... didn't know what he wanted. He hadn't really thought about it. Even when he went to eat out, he usually had the same thing. Perhaps it was a bit ironic, considering his hobbies, but that's how it was.

But all things considered, she probably wanted to see as much of the festival as she could, didn't she? So probably something smaller. He scans the stalls within his line of sight, almost expecting to see Aki hounding the okonomiyaki stand. "You ever tried a crepe before?"

"A few times.... A crepe sounds fine right now, though." Sweet things are always okay with her, even if Shinjiro might not really approve.

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Autumn Festival (OPEN)

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