🌸 sunshine, she's here, you can take a break

[mistsplitter]

WHO: Everyone!! :D
WHAT: A get-to-know-you-together!
WHEN: end of August
WHERE: shinrin-yoku, Sunwaning
WARNINGS: None for now!


[ The past week, Ayaka and Aether made an announcement on the network, inviting everyone interested to make friends and meet new people to the shinrin-yoku teahouse the following weekend. Well, this is it! The time has come! ]

Welcome
🌸 shinrin-yoku seems like a simple tea house upon entering, with a large wooden sliding door that's already opened for guests to enter.

Ayaka will be the one to personally greet her guests, offering three possible areas for seating– the traditional Inazuman set up, the space for where you can let your legs down and not kneel while seated, or outside in the gardens. Familiar faces may be abound, and guests may like to walk around and see the interior, perhaps even say hello to the manager who is walking around and sniffing people here and there.

For future endeavours, Ayaka informs guests that they may use the shinrin-yoku for business gatherings and meetings. Members of Ayato's committee are more than welcome to use the shinrin-yoku, and may even become a place for exchanging information and the like. The tea house promises to be a safe place to all.

And for this particular gathering, Ayaka is not only serving tea, but also sake. It never hurts to make things more fun!


Konpeito, Truth, or Dare
🌸 All guests, upon entering, will be given a small clear glass container. They will also be presented with a giant bowl containing konpeito. They must take at least one, and as many as they could possibly want, and put it inside their own container. They are told not to eat any for now, but no one's really stopping them from doing so!

At some point during the occasion, a game is announced. Everyone is told to check their konpeito and count how many they have! Now, they must pick a partner and play a couple of rounds of truth or dare with them. Every time they get a turn, whether they pick truth or dare, they can eat a piece of candy! Or eat three or five at the same time Once they've had five rounds, though, then they have to choose another partner and start over until they've finished their konpeito bowls.

There is an added rule to the konpeitos, but not necessarily required to be followed! A white konpeito must have a truth or dare related to family, green for a "favourite", yellow for love or sex, orange for childhood or childlike-ness, and pink for "hate".

Ringo (Ayaka's Eevee) and Taroumaru will be watching people and make sure they aren't cheating! Though sometimes, they may not be looking, and can even be bribed with snacks. Participants who can finish their konpeito in an hour (which we'll conveniently handwave) will receive a box of sakura mochi to take home.


Introduction Bingo
🌸 Guests are given bingo cards to fill up at some point during the afternoon! Pens are also provided, or if they have their own, then that's cool!

Participants may put someone's name twice on any of the squares, but more than that, and it won't count. The objective is to get a blackout by filling out names of people who fit the description! How one does this is completely up to them. They could even slip it into their conversations during the truth or dare games, or just randomly walk up to people and ask them things.


Two Twists and a Lie
🌸 A card is given to participants for them to write two truths and one lie on it, then they have to pin or stick it to the back of their clothing. When someone wants to play, they must first challenge you to a game of janken. If you win, you get to turn the game around and guess which is the lie on their card. If they win, then they're entitled to one guess! If they get it wrong, you have to play janken again.

So, what happens when the person gets it right? The person can now make a rule that the other person has to follow. Whether it means they have to call you "Master", end all their sentences with "yes, please", or some other rule that you can think of! And in case you can't think of anything, there's a box nearby with cute props that you can make the loser wear: cat ears, a cat tail, bunny ears, a bunny tail, a raccoon kigurumi, and some goofy glasses.


---

( OOC: Feel free to play around with the prompts. Get creative! )

Comments

[at_heart]

[ Ponders for a beat. ]

I mostly just got beaten unconscious and then dumped in a cell? But we've got shackles, too.

[ blasé af ]

[mayoninofukucho]

[That's bleak!! But then again it's not like Hijikata himself is above such methods... and, more importantly--]

What'd they put you in for?

[Wasn't Yuri a guild adventurer? Why'd the cops in his homeworld go after him? Also why is this bingo game turning into a near-interrogation...]

[at_heart]

Oh, you don't want my full rap sheet. [ Waving that idea away!! ] It took like an hour to go through the whole thing back home.

[ Whatever impression Flynn might have given you, Yuri is here to ruin it! ...But he's being a lot more careful with his words than his dry demeanor would have you think. ]

The last beating was... nominally for breaking and entering, I guess?

[ Turning a grin on Hijitaka. ]

But maybe I should save some ammunition for Truth or Dare? Call it a pink question or whatever.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Damn, Yuri is turning out to be a total delinquent... (never mind that Hijikata was no better in his youth, before he became a cop). Luckily none of whatever Yuri trouble got into back home falls under his jurisdiction here, so he can sort of ignore all that (even though it totally informs his opinion of him). At his suggestion, though, he shakes his head.]

No more 'Truth or Dare' for me, sorry. I've got no candy left.

[He gulped it down by the handful with the first one or two people he played with, wanting to get out of it as fast as possible! 'Truth or Dare' is a dangerous game, and if he'd known what the candy was for, he'd only have taken one piece in the first place!]

[at_heart]

Too bad.

[ He does, in fact, often look like an overgrown delinquent. Not tonight so much, though; he cleaned up pretty for Ayaka's tea house.

Leaning back on (whatever's convenient, wall or table), though, Yuri smiles for Hijitaka. ]

You can still ask, though. Supposed to be getting to know each other, right?

[ Beat. ]

Could tell you the Imperial Knights used to be kind of a cesspit of corruption and classism, but I've admitted to being a criminal, right? You've gotta take my word with a grain of salt.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Yuri certainly made more of an effort than Hijikata, who just threw on his plain black kimono. Despite not doing anything impolite or untoward, he's increasingly getting under Hijikata's skin, simply by merit of coming across as a mix of blasé and sharp in a way that puts the samurai on edge. Does he remind him of anyone..? He can't put his finger on it.]

It doesn't matter if I believe you or not, does it? But for what it's worth, I do.

[By now he's been part of no less than 4 law enforcement organisations on as many worlds, his Shinsengumi back home included, and while all of them acted conscientiously in the spirit of the law, he knows what corruption and classism look like. He's seen it in his shogunate, in the elite Mimawarigumi, hell, even in the Shinsengumi (though they managed to root the rotten apples out, albeit at a cost).]

"Used to be", though... who cleaned them up? Flynn?

[Isn't he an Imperial Knight? He definitely is a good guy through and through for all Hijikata can tell; he practically emanates heroism, and without any bombast to boot.]

[at_heart]

[ You're welcome, Hijitaka! ]

Heh. That'd be the one, yeah. Youngest commandant we've ever had.

[ Very — aware of the engagement ring hanging around his neck. Yuri's gaze flits away briefly, then back to Hijitaka's face. ]

I'm sure he'd say it was a team effort.

[mayoninofukucho]

Yeah, I bet he'd say that.

[His face brightens up a little. Flynn has been nothing but reliable and chivalrous during their ventures together thus far, so he's a welcome topic of discussion. He told Hijikata that he moved in with Yuri, but that's as far as the information went...]

How'd you guys get to know each other? I guess your guild business overlapped with his knight business?

[at_heart]

[ ...Good. Flynn deserves that sort of regard. ]

—What?

[ A, amused. ]

No. Not even a little. We met when we were like, four. Grew up together in the Lower Quarter.

...Tried to join the Knights myself, when we were both eighteen.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Oh wow... so they're roommates and childhood friends!]

Why didn't they want you?

[Yuri certainly comes across as plenty capable... maybe the recruiters smelled the delinquency on him?]

[at_heart]

[ omg they were roommates TM ]

—Heh, that's my fault for phrasing. They didn't actually want either of us, Knights were all-nobility until pretty recently and plenty of people still held onto that prejudice even after they started technically accepting applicants from the other quarters...

But no, I enlisted successfully enough. Just didn't last.

[mayoninofukucho]

[He snorts. That reminds him of the many side-eyes the Shinsengumi got from shogunate officials and civilians alike when it was first formed, being made up of simple country bumpkin swordsmen, most of which weren't even born into samurai families.]

Their loss. I take it they kicked you out for pointing out their rotten underbelly?

[at_heart]

Keeping my mouth shut and my head down didn't turn out to be one of my talents. Who could've guessed.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Damn it, Yuri is so sassy... if he and authority-minded Hijikata were workmates or otherwise had to spend a lot of time together every day, it'd grate on him. But luckily they aren't, so he can take it in stride! (Besides it's not like his workmates back home don't grate on him - that handcuff incident was only one of many.)]

Yeah, I didn't think you would. Well, I figure things worked out for the best, what with Flynn cleaning up the knights and you starting your guild.

[They seem pretty successful and happy in their respective job! Yuri even opened a new chapter of the guild here on Ellipsa, so he's clearly better suited to the guild master role than to a knight's duty.]

[at_heart]

[ The Most Sass ]

Heh, it's not really mine. I'm just a member. Did help Karol found it, though.

[ will Yuri ever own up to having saved the world if he can't use it to make some other point, signs point to no ]

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata makes a mildly disbelieving face. For being "just a member" Yuri certainly has a lot of passion for his guild! Flynn confirmed that, too... not that it was really needed.]

How's the local branch been going, anyway?

[His understanding is that Brave Vesperia Ellipsa matches people across guilds for quests and other tasks, but also does all sorts of odd jobs... there should be no shortage of those, and besides there are always the permanent quests.]

[at_heart]

It's going. We picked up way more members when I started than I thought we'd ever see, so I haven't really — advertised again. Fits in well with the quest boards, though.

[ He'd like to think Karol would be proud. Once he got over the 'fundraising via maid cafe' aspect. ]

[mayoninofukucho]

That's good to hear.

[He means it - after understanding the merits of the guild, he finds it nice to see it thrive. It probably does a whole lot of good to boost the otherworlders' image among the local population, too.

He checks the clock on his phone, as if they're on a schedule at this casual mingle...]

Well, thanks for helping me with the bingo.

[Is he trying to close out the conversation (probably to get out of playing more 'Truth or Dare', even if he's the only asking the questions / giving the dares)? It sure looks like it!]

[at_heart]

[ Amuuuused. ]

Thanks. And — you're welcome? I'd like to think we helped each other.

[mayoninofukucho]

I reckon we did.

[With that, he bows out, literally. Thank, Yuri, for letting him off the hook easily... this man is simply not built for social events (outside of getting smashed at a bar with his comrades)!

But regardless, it's still good to be officially acquainted. They accomplished the objective!]