♯ graduation ♫

[idolpro]

Who: Sunset, Sol, and invited guests
Where: The park
When: Day 129, morning (forward-dated)

[ For those who were invited - and maybe those who were not - you find banners circling around one particular grove of trees like a fairy's circle, opening up at one end to an archway of flowers. Through the entrance you can see the banners reading "CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES" and "HAPPY TRAVELS" in gold font atop red and blue banner cloth.

For those who are unaware, or those who don't go through the entrance, they'll find themselves unable to pass through the trees on either end - they'll find themselves pacing in the same place if they try to proceed, and nothing will go through. In fact, you can't even see past the trees without going through the entrance first - it's like a pocket dimension, or entering another world. How . . . strange. . .

Well - step through the entrance and you'll find music beginning to play, although there's no particular source. It seems to be the ambiance - well-fitting too, given the festivities going on!

(Stepping back out of the entrance completely stops the music, and you can't even see what's going on beyond the entrance until you step back in. Hhhhhuh.)

Anyway. On the rows of picnic cloth-covered foldable tables are an unusual mix of food and drink: bread dishes, meat skewers, roasted fish, stew, and ale . . . along with soda, fried chicken, takoyaki, various street fair food, and -. . . . conbini bento? The spread is all mixed together, like whoever set it up just has no idea how they were supposed to be organizing this. There are no chairs to sit on, however; every seat is a rooted tree stump, completely immovable.

A dazzling gold carpet rolls from the entrance to the very back, where a makeshift stage has been created. There are two large speakers that stand off center on either side of the stage, but neither of them are making the music happen . . . At the center, two mic stands with sparkling confetti boas wrapping around them: one is Taisho madder and the other is pep!pep! navy.

Oh and - there are just a few barrels near the trees, strewn about. What are they there for? Atmosphere??? You can't interact with them at all - it's like that awkward thing where the graphics weren't finely tuned enough so even trying to touch them just results in the attempting appendage hovering in place. That's weird.

Well.

Putting that all aside, it's a party! ]

Comments

[avestan]

Eh? How, then?

[sleeplessknight]

I want to say a few things first...

And then... well, hopefully it doesn't have to be a "goodbye".

[avestan]

I mean, it probably will be. But okay.

[sleeplessknight]

Doodleman!

Why do you think that?

[avestan]

Well, you're going back home, right? And I'll go back to my world whenever I graduate. So there's not much of a chance that we'll meet again.

[sleeplessknight]

Didn't you talk about being familiar with Japan before?

That's where I'm planning to go back to, sorta.

[avestan]

The place I'll be going back to isn't in Japan, though.

[sleeplessknight]

Where are you going back to?

[avestan]

Chaldea. It's a special Mages' Association facility somewhere in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

[sleeplessknight]

... If it's a place with magic, then couldn't they let you go to other places too?

[avestan]

Oh, there's missions and shit where we go to other places. But I don't think vacations are really a thing.

[sleeplessknight]

Ehh? That sounds really unfair!

[avestan]

Yeah? You think it would be a good idea for them to let a bunch of mythical heroes and villains run around the world freely?

[sleeplessknight]

Well, not if you promise to behave...

[avestan]

That is absolutely not a promise I can make.

[sleeplessknight]

[reaches up to tug his ear lightly]

Don't you get to indulge enough in awful things here?

[avestan]

No? I never get to do any murder.

[sleeplessknight]

That's a lie! What about games?

[avestan]

...Hey, Sunset. Let's not talk about this. You shouldn't have to be upset at your graduation.

[sleeplessknight]

I'm not upset.

Well, I kinda am, but it's more about you not having a lot of hope for the future, if that makes sense?

This place is pretty bad, but it has its good things too, and I know you know that. So... there's really nothing that says things have to be a certain way. What you know to be true today may end up changing tomorrow.

[avestan]

...Hah.

Maybe it will.

[sleeplessknight]

[reaches for his hands and squeezes them]

If it does, I hope it's for the best. The kind of change that you like.

[avestan]

For a pure evil being like me, wouldn't changes that I don't like be for the best?

[sleeplessknight]

Even if you say that, I still think there's some good qualities in you.

But more importantly, you shouldn't have to go through any more things that you don't like.

[avestan]

It's not like I had to go through any of the things I have. That's just what happened.