GRADUATION X4

[idolpro]

Who: avante en garde, ⭐ZRAEL, invited guests
Where: Buildings nearby the hotel
When: Day 371/370/whenever is most convenient

[ All members avante en garde and ⭐ZRAEL have received a set of invites, both with separate places listed but the same time. Travelling to either of the listed addresses leads to two buildings across the street from each other - one is a mostly empty warehouse, filled with graffiti and mural painting supplies. Tarps cover portions of the floor, and from floor to ceiling are elaborate murals that are a mix of grunge and graffiti with gothic catholic classic detailing, which depict scenes of hell and demons and angels and battle various types of birds (coincidentally(?) only birds that members of avante take their names after). The murals are illuminated brightly, almost seeming to glitter in the sunlight that filters through a single window in the far back wall of the warehouse. Despite it being just one window, the light touches every surface in the warehouse and no matter what angle an observer is at, they can see the sun bright in the sky through it.

The other building is a towering gothic style cathedral, halls filled with constant ominous chanting of daemonic poetry™️. There is all the expected Christian finery, though the shadows gnawing at every corner of the architecture utterly inescapable no matter where one is in the building - with one exception. The altar room, the beating heart of this cathedral, seems to have been converted into a ballroom with an ostentatious and bright crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, bordered by planters full of morning glories and blue roses. Ravens roost in the chandelier, cawing along to whatever music happens to be playing over the sound system.

In the street between the two buildings is a sectioned off street fair, connecting the two venues. A large banner is strung across the street, hung from the parapet of the cathedral and the rafters of the warehouse, bearing the words:
FAREWELL, CHILDREN OF SPARDA

The market itself contains a wide array of foods - there are traditional Japanese dishes, as well as food that resembles but is not quite similar to Thai and Laotian cuisine. Somehow, there is also exactly as much spaghetti as there is any other food. As in, roughly half of the food available is just spaghetti and literally nothing else. For dessert there are sweets from all the world over, and at the center of the market is a colossal cake, featuring DANTE FROM THE DEVIL MAY CRY™️ SERIES.

Or...it's just an animatronic, actually? An animatronic Dante bursting out from the top of the cake, dressed in a shirtless sexy cowboy outfit, unceasingly spouting prerecorded lines at regular intervals with such classics as "JACKPOT!", "You can call me Dante the demon killer!", "You cut your son's arm off for this?" and of course, "I was supposed to fill your dark soul with LiiIIiGhT!"

There is a fireworks show on display at regular intervals as well, and every instance of this show ends with Cowboy Dante screaming about light - sometimes even interrupting whatever else he was saying at the time.

This sure is a thing that's happening here. ]

Comments

[selfpreservationist]

[sticks his finger in the cake frosting... ... ... ... ... ... licks it]

[softlyfalling]

...I guess it's finally happening, isn't it.

[ she's dressed in some avante finery for the occasion, and keeps dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. ]

[rollplayinghouse]

[Glory is having a lot of feelings, but she is distracted from most of them by staring at the animatronic Dante, occasionally starting to go for a slice of cake before getting distracted by him saying some more ridiculous line.

She also has a new outfit!]

[temperedinpride]

How bittersweet, as happy partings are wont to be.

[ouji4board]

Aw, cake.

[liarliarliar]

Congrats!

[worthathousand]

[ She'll say this much for the mechanical DANTE FROM THE DEVIL MAY CRY™️ SERIES: its presence is making it much easier not to break down crying.
Amaranth is in something a little more Creation-traditional for the occasion, and she has brought along two very large boxes, both much longer than they are wide. ]

All of this such a long time coming, and yet somehow far too soon.

[auguryofinnocence]

[Well the producers have done a great job distracting Vergil from losing his family. Because he has to stare down this Dante. He is full of murderous rage. He is this close to fighting an animatronic sexy cowboy.

Even when he makes himself walk away, any time he hears "JACKPOT!", he cringes from the mental damage he very visibly takes.

This is the worst day of his life.]

[avestan]

[doodle is, of course, sulking. idk if this is before or after arson but if it's after he's sulking EXTRA HARD]

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ a certain attendee of this graduation may be hard to recognize at a first glance, considering his hair is cut short into a bob and he's wearing a pair of sunglasses on his face. he's dressed entirely in leather instead of his old, familiar ☆ZRAEL attire, too.

but he briefly lowers the sunglasses to appraise the Dante cake monstrosity with a whistle. ]

Wow, looks like Heaven grads are on a whole 'nother level.

A THING THAT HAPPENS SOMETIME LATER:

[softlyfalling]

[ as the graduates exit stage left to their final destinations, Shrike gives one teary-eyed smile back at everyone—

and then there's a flash of light, like the rays of a golden dawn over the horizon, so bright that for a moment it obscures her entirely, and in the afterimage, there's the impression of a small bird taking flight as the sun rises, the wind left by its passage causing grasses to sway.

and then the light fades, and she's gone. ]

[flawandorder]

[This is no small affair. While Kyanite would not have missed it for anything, actually partaking in the celebration is more difficult for him. He ends up making himself comfortable at the edge of the festivities; watching, rather than actively engaging. But he wears a smile on his face as he does with great fondness.]