Let's partyyyyyyy! [open]

[livingdeadgirl]

Who: EVERYONE.
What: A meet-and-greet party for everybody in Anchor!
When: early October
Where: the VR room lobby
Warnings: none yet
Format: go wild!

[ The day before, a wild network post appears, from the username @aa : ]

hi everyone!
i just wanted to let you all know
the meet and greet party previously discussed in this space
will be held tomorrow afternoon!

it will take place in the vr room lobby
and of course everyone is invited
refreshments and games will be provided
but if you would like a little extra challenge
please feel free to bring something to share!

attendance is mandatory!
(lol just kidding)
seriously though i do hope to see all of you there ;)

[ She's also posted handwritten signs to that effect in the mess hall and several of the staircases. Just in case! ]

---

The day of, a party appears in the VR Room lobby area, as promised!

Though it's not brightly lit, the lights there are are brightly colored, creating a chilled-out evening atmosphere like you'd find at a club. Plush chairs and couches are interspersed throughout the room, and there's been a solid attempt to clean the place up, or at least do something about all the dust.

A shortage of conventional party supplies has forced Ami and Cho to get creative, so the tables and parts of the wall are decorated with paper flowers, and the buffet table is presided over by a number of ... weird, pink, glitter-covered, vaguely animal-shaped sculptures made out of spare plastic pipes and stuff. With googly eyes. If nothing else they're a conversation piece.

FOOD: The main offering is barbecue! There's a pretty wide assortment of meats, all of which Cho has certified safe for human consumption, and also certified delicious. Chips, dried fruit, and a few different desserts are available, including homemade chocolate chip cookies that Ami made herself (wich Cho's help). All the trays are helpfully labeled, including allergy information.

Any and all potluck submissions are welcome as well! Just set it down over here and make a little card of your own.

DRINKS: Sadly, the coffee machine is still out of order. But there is a cooler stocked with ice and a few different choices of juice and soda. Alcoholic selections are limited to two types of pre-mixed drinks, which are intentionally weak on the alcohol, but at least they're not tequila sunrises. If guests want anything stronger, they'll need to bring it themselves.

ENTERTAINMENT: In fiddling with the controls, Ami got the overhead speakers to play some music, but couldn't figure out how to modify the playlist, so it's just one song on loop. Maybe if she keeps the volume kind of low, no one will notice. No live music is scheduled, but if anyone wants to bring a guitar and jam for a while, they will be more than welcome to.

And most of the arcade games are online! Anyone for Fruit Ninja? Air hockey? Dance Dance Retribution? Virtual Billiards? Or perhaps you'd like to try out a full-simulation game in the VR Rooms proper? Now's as good a time as any!

Oh, and don't forget to enter the raffle! The winner will be chosen randomly and announced a few hours into the party.

Comments

[arcadedragon]

[The dragon seems content to be held, sniffing at Carlisle's clothing absently and folding its tiny legs beneath its body. The long whiskers on each side of its snout twitch every so often as it watches the blinking lights around them. It's been in enough arcades to know it can't steal the shinies, but its still distracted by them. ]

Yes. That is something that helped me to find tranquility. I was angry for such a long time, it was.. I was not truly myself.

[He reaches out to skritch the dragons head, getting a contented snort in response.]

The journey to find oneself is long, but necessary. Though it's far easier to not go alone.

[abheirrant]

Not truly... yourself.

[And angry for such a long time. Try as he might to deny his ever being a creature as vile as the Blight Heir, Carlisle so strongly relates to such statements that it gives him visible pause. He can recall so little of his time as a Revenant, but he knows well enough there was nothing but bitterness and anger in his heart, with occasional bouts of terrible, remorseful clarity as his only relief. Though no longer lost in his own mind, he still fights his nature as an undead, temperaments of hostility and despair often threatening to overpower the personality he knows is his own. It is easier these days, but still so intimidating that fear strangles his every move.

However, it is important he remember that he's not alone in this. There are people who knew him before willing to help him, offering him hope that he can once more attain some semblance of that better life he had in Hadriel; he has new acquaintances who would likely aid him if asked, ones to whom he may, at some point, have to explain himself. Perhaps they will reject him due to the atrocities he committed as the Blight Heir -- he could not blame them if they did.

It's fear that holds him back, just as it did in life. He was afraid before of what would happen to those who were near him, as though his curse may rub off on them; now, it is less the curse that frightens him, and more of what he may do accidentally. He was once horrified by his circumstances; now he is afraid of himself and of losing what little he has.

But as Genji says, it's a journey to find himself. It's long, and arduous, but... maybe it's necessary to move forward. He nods solemnly.]

It isn't easy, being angry at yourself. I understand that intimately.

[He returns his gaze to Genji.]

Did you have someone there? So you weren't alone?

[arcadedragon]

[The dragon makes a move, crawling up Carlisle's chest to perch on his shoulder, clawed feet on his head, sniffing at his hair.]

I did not. There were others there but.. When I lost my arm and.. [his legs and had his throat slit and nearly bled to death...But that's going into a lot of detail he'd rather not.] When this new one was grafted to me I joined an organization known as Blackwatch to do covert missions for what we were told was the good of the world.

Suicide missions.

A team of people with no connections and no remorse for killing, no qualms about dying. I did not speak to most of them. We had nothing in common.

[Years of being alone amongst others did not aid him in the healing process whatsoever. In fact it amplified the bitterness he felt inside from being murdered by his brother.]

It was years later, after I left - that I was able to find peace.

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle seems a lot more nervous the second the dragon reaches his shoulder, his hands too occupied trying to keep his veil in place to dissuade him from rooting through his hair. He keeps his complaints to himself, wanting to hear Genji's story.

And what a sad story it is. He wonders how Genji found out the Blackwatch wasn't doing what was 'for the good of the world' -- it seems implied that it wasn't, after all, especially if he left the organization. To have no qualms with dying, no qualms with killing, though... well, they could not have been good.

He tries to push the dragon from his head, hoping to encourage him to come down without any of those claws catching on his veil and mask.]

Who helped you? Your master?

[arcadedragon]

[The dragon takes a mouthful of hair and chews before deciding that is very much not something to be eaten and spits it out, leaving Carlisle with a nice cowlick. It walks across his back to the opposite shoulder before jumping down to the ground and returning to the nest of still lit orbs.]

Yes. His name is Zenyatta. He helped me to become comfortable with time flowing forward again, rather than becoming stagnant in my bitterness and hate.

[abheirrant]

[Stagnating in bitterness and hate: add in a helping of unbridled remorse, and Carlisle knows intimately what that's like, as it perfectly describes what he feels when he tries to recall his time as the Blight Heir. Among what few images he can recall are emotions, ones that flood through him so thoroughly that he fears if he wades too far within them, he will be dragged under, doomed to suffocate beneath them.

He runs a hand through his hair, trying to fix the mess the dragon made.]

How did he help you, if I may ask?

[Asking for a friend. Not him.]

[arcadedragon]

Through meditation. He is a monk, one of the Shambali.

He had orbs much like these, but made of metal that could channel energy, both healing and destructive. Sōmen used to steal them and hide them behind the furniture.

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle hms to himself, eyeing the pile of illuminated orbs on the floor.]

I have not heard of that god, though I suppose that, given we are all from different worlds, it should come as no surprise.

[He makes a mental note about meditation, though he's not sure it will do him any good. He can't even quiet his mind long enough to go to sleep anymore. He'll have to find another way... or get help. He knows he's a near-stranger to Genji, having only met him tonight and having assumed he was some kind of construct for a part of it, but—]

Could... could you teach someone how to do that? To meditate and find peace?

[arcadedragon]

I am not a master of the art as he is. But I could attempt. It is about freeing your mind, and focusing only on the task ahead. Everything else falls away except that which you are trying to achieve.

For me that was forcing my hatred to ebb, so it did not consume me.

[He may have forgiven Hanzo for what he did, but the hatred is still there. Mostly focused internally on what he's become that people either fear or pity him.

Or in this place assume he's a robot like the ones that inhabit this place.]

I am but a student.

[abheirrant]

One learning can still share what they have learned thus far, if he is willing.

[Which Genji said he would. Carlisle hesitates, then internally kicks himself for doing so.]

Perhaps I could ask you to show me one day? [He asks that tentatively, quietly, much like someone who would rather not admit why he would need such guidance.]

[arcadedragon]

[He hesitates, looking at the dragon instead of Carlisle. Zenyatta would encourage him, tell him that bringing peace to others is a higher calling. But Genji feels so conflicted. He claims that he's moved beyond his past, and for the most part he has. But there's still so many lingering doubts. They're the reason he doesn't want to remove his helmet in front of others. The reason that he's drawn to the arcade instead of any truly productive pursuits.

If he pretends nothing has changed from his youth, he can almost believe he's still the same.]

I may not be much of a teacher, but I will attempt it if you wish to learn. It truly does help when things are tough to deal with.

[abheirrant]

May it be of some help to me, then. There is... a lot that is difficult to deal with, currently.

[His very existence, what the Blight Heir did to Bear Den, the constant and pervasive threat he technically is to everyone in Anchor with his particular set of abilities, the fact he can't sleep, the worry that he may someday lose his sense of self and become the Blight Heir once more, the issue of washing that one ink stain out of the inside of his mask— it's a lot.]

When you have time, of course.

[arcadedragon]

I see.

[He wants to ask more, but he won't pry. Not when he just met him. ]

I am not sure what else will occupy my time. Is there much going on here?

[abheirrant]

A lot, if one asks the girl who planned this event.

[He starts listing, counting on his fingers for dramatic effect.]

There was a fungus that ran rampant, someone spying on the personal quarters, buildings full of the undead appearing out of nowhere. There is, apparently, a lot going on here.

[arcadedragon]

[Okay that is.. admittedly a lot more than he expected.]

Perhaps there will be something to do with my time. I saw the store outside full of zombies, but I didn't realize it had appeared one day? What a strange place.

At least there is an arcade.

[Priorities.]

[abheirrant]

[Ah yes, the store outside, the store full of zombies, the zombie-infested store. That store.]

Yes, this place could be worse, admittedly. And at least the undead are beyond Anchor's walls rather than within them.

[arcadedragon]

[Indeed. That store.]

The trucks out there are also full of zombies. And twinkies.

[Or they were full of twinkies, Genji had put a big dent in that shipment of sugar.]

If they were to get inside I believe we could deal with them.

[abheirrant]

Oh, I believe a number of them have been, ah. Dealt with, thankfully. [And by that, he means they're buried in the sand, along with a cache of guns and beer.]

But- but it's good to have protection, should they return. Put your sword to better use than, um. Than you once did.

[arcadedragon]

That's what it should be for. Protecting others.

[He reaches a hand out to the dragon who scampers up to him, floating into the air and wrapping around his arm to disappear back into him with a final translucent green glow hanging in the air where it once was.]

I thank you for playing a game. And for accepting me even when I look as I do. You have been very kind.

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle watches the dragon vanish, just a hair disappointed that he's gone. Still, he got to hold a dragon, and that might be the best his (un)life is going to get. He can't help but smile just a little.]

I could have been kinder, had I not let my fear of constructs get the better of me. You have my apologies, and my sincere thanks for introducing me to such wonders as your ah. Little friend there.

[He gestures toward Genji's arm.]

And that.

[And to the Snake*bert machine, its colorful lights still illuminating that side of the room.]

[arcadedragon]

We are in a strange place with strange people, it is understandable.

[He gives him a formal bow. ]

It was a pleasure to meet you. I am sorry in advance if Sōmen steals anything from you when I am not watching.

[abheirrant]

He is welcome to visit me at any time.

[He returns that bow with one of his own. It's a bit stiffer, but the sentiment is the same.]

Until next time, then.

[And with that, he's retiring from this party for the evening. He's had about all the excitement and socializing he can get, even if the last person he met was equal parts fascinating and kind. He'll have to take him up on his offer of learning meditation one day -- perhaps when he's had more time to sort out his myriad of grievances.]