glocksuke | Summer Festival in the MGU

Summer Festival in the MGU

Wherever you are, whoever you are, one minute you’re at home minding your own business and the next you’ll see a shower of sparkles before you blink and find yourself teleported elsewhere.

The elsewhere, it seems, is an open grounds lined with stalls, pathways and gardens. Lanterns light up the pathways in soft glowing oranges and pinks, and even though it’s evening the weather is warm and enjoyable for a fun summer festival.

As you set off to explore, you’ll find that there are countless stalls with every type of treat you can imagine from a variety of cultures (including some from your own home worlds, strangely), all of which smell delicious and enticing. There are other stalls available with different carnival games as well. Go ahead and give it your all! Win a prize for that special someone, or just keep trying out of sheer stubbornness. Other stalls seem to be selling wares such as clothing, household items, flowers, and other things that can be given away as gifts. It seems that every time you look around, a new stall opens, almost as if this festival is responding to your every wish.

Speaking of wishes, there’s a small cluster of bamboo trees nearby as well, tables set up with baskets of arts and crafts supplies to write your wishes on the colorful paper and tie them to a branch. It’s a sweet thought, no?

And of course, what’s a festival without fireworks? Every now and then fireworks will light up the night sky, bursts of color in fun shapes such as stars, hearts, faces of people you know, whatever! Sparklers and bubble wands can also be found to play with throughout the evening near the viewing gardens. Flowers bloom and cover the area, though the paths lead to several small alcove-like areas and gazebos for those of you who wish to have a little romantic privacy. No matter where you are though, you’ll always be able to see the starry night sky.

Do try to play along and enjoy yourself for the evening. It’s only when the last firework bursts several hours later that you can actually leave anyway. Have fun!

[ooc: you know the drill, past mg characters from any of our past games, please don't make me list them again but go nuts.]

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[try to call him out on it, coward. sora thinks he's getting away with it and doesn't seem bothered, a little more relaxed and cheerful with riku following after him. is he making a beeline for a stand of what looks like cotton candy? yeah, probably.

on the other hand, he's perceiving just a little as he lifts an eyebrow at that.]

Don't tell me you didn't make at least one new friend. [it's supposed to be teasing but now he's concerned? riku? your friends? that sounds like it would be miserable and yeah okay riku's not like himself who makes friends literally everywhere but??? but!!!]

But yeah. I mean those kind of people. I think they'd probably be pretty mad if I didn't say hi while I was here. [two can play that game, ANSWER HIM!!!]

[Nnnnnnnnnnng, dumb Sora! ANSWER HIM FIRST!!]

I...... made friends.

[He says this exactly like he'd say if he was trying to keep from calling people friends in front of Sora, his best friend.

STOP, LISTEN. Sometimes you struggle to make friends for a long time because you're a huge butt. Sometimes you only have two best friends, and that's all you think you need, and then you get butthurt when you are not THEIR only best friend.]

...how many is "they"?

[riku you truly are still a huge butt. the hesitance he hears in the tone means that sora's trying not to laugh before he's grabbing a stick of cotton candy for himself in his free hand and waving it in riku's face. grab one, loser.

simultaneously there is a sense of relief then. riku wasn't as along as he initially thought. that's what matters. he's still not sure why riku's being resistant to giving him details (they're stupid, that's why) but he's not really embarrassed about his own friends.]

Depends on how many of them are here, but two for sure. They were some of the first friends I made in the Realm. [and because he's not a coward:] Lup and Clementine. They have to be here somewhere and I want you to meet them if they are.

[STOP

ALSO STOP x 2. He makes a slight face and leans away from the stupid waving cotton candy. SORA!!

The true reluctance is him taking the stick of cotton candy in solidarity.] This stuff is going to rot your teeth. [He is truly so DRAB when he's with Sora, help.

Hearing this, he really wants to say, "You always make friends," but he shockingly keeps his mouth shut for once.] ... [Hm.

He peers at Sora.]

Well... I met Clementine. [He met your girlfriend, Sora.] What does Lup look like?

[how can you say no to this face? he looks so pleased even if he's busy pulling off a chunk of sugary, sticky junk to shove in his mouth with a shrug. oh well! that's what a dentist is for! do they have dentists on the island...i sure hope so.

anyway, he doesn't bother gracing riku with a response about his cavity-inducing snack and instead seems more interested in talking about his friends because of course he does.]

Taller than me. Blonde. Pointy ears? Kind of always looks like she's half-torn between being nice and making fun of whoever she's talking to. Her brother might be here too though. They're twins. But Taako's hair is usually braided and Lup's isn't all the time. They're wizards! And elves.

[yeah. but riku also mentions he met clementine so sora sneaks another look at him.] ...what'd you think of Clementine?

Oh. [Hm.] The lady who smacked me.

[It was for a good reason (?), at least to Lup. It's fine. He watches Sora eat the cotton candy, and then goes back to looking at his own. Hopefully the island has oral hygienists.

Can Dream Eaters have cotton candy? Komory is perched on Riku's shoulder, looking at it curiously.]

I don't know... [She cusses a lot............. It takes a moment before he sliiiiides his eyes at Sora. And then he kinds of smirks a bit to himself.] We agreed you were a dummy.

[...]

She's... cool, I guess.

[cool, now he just looks alarmed. meow wow's waddling along, bouncing around sora's feet and whining a little but sora's more focused on the other thing.]

What do you mean she smacked you? Why? [mom!!!! he looks a little unhappy with that but riku keeps talking and then he just. pouts. hey!!!] I guess it's fine you guys found something in common.

[jerks. both of you. except he's still smiling at that and shrugs a little.] She's great. She's...different, but she's really important. She was gonna come visit someday anyway.

She said I told you something not nice. That she saw it in a memory.

[He says this very--leadingly? Like he's trying to get Sora to both confirm and explain what this means since Lup didn't do that, and left him paranoid and somewhat disgruntled with himself. (His future self?)

...And it also left him worried, too.

Anyhow, LISTEN HERE. He zooms right in on the "she's really important," and he keeps side-eyeing Sora.]

Come visit? You mean the island?

[...ah.]

Really? [he will not! he is not going to confirm or explain because that's terrible, actually!] When I find her later I'll tell her to apologize. She shouldn't have said anything like that.

[there's a reassuring little grin like he's just saying it's nothing to worry about, actually.]

Lup's...pretty overprotective, I guess. She wanted to come visit the island too someday. [so yes, clem, too. which is also a thing he's not going to confirm when riku still hasn't even confirmed what kind of friends he made.] I told both of them that they could come and meet everybody. I really wanted both of them to meet you and Kairi.

[Great. Now Lup is going to think he's a big, stupid tattle tale who can't handle being bonked a bit for (apparently) saying something rude to his best friend.

WHO STILL WON'T TELL HIM WHAT THE HELL THAT WAS ABOUT!! SORA!!!!!!]

No. Don't--worry about it. It's fine. She didn't even hit me that hard. [Hold on, dammit. There's a lot to unpack here!! He makes a bit of a face. There is a section eaten out of his cotton candy now that he hasn't noticed because he's too busy (as usual) paying attention to Sora.] She wouldn't tell me what I even said. Or why.

[SORA.]

They're that important, huh?

[he's still not that thrilled about it but he's tearing away a chunk of cotton candy with his teeth and sulking for a few moments.]

It's no big deal. It was just...you were right when you said it, but Lup took it the wrong way. That's all. [very helpful. but there's a nod immediately after that.]

They're really, really important. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it out of there with them? [my friends are my power, etc.] Clementine and I had special jobs for our leaders, and Lup knew about all of us and helped us whenever she could. She kept a ton of secrets for us to help us make sure we got out of there and brought everybody back.

[Sora. This literally tells him NOTHING. He's going to shove this cotton candy stick up Sora's behind.

So yeah, he's making a FACE at "you were right" and also "Lup took it the wrong way" too. What does this MEAN? What did he SAY? The fact Sora isn't telling him is proof enough it's something serious. Why is Sora being so dodgy? A hard, cold pit settles in his stomach. He doesn't like the idea of Sora being dodgy when he's from the future.

Anyway, now he's thinking about stupid Yamato and Taichi. And the others, but mostly them because Sora is talking about Lup and Clem.]

You're not giving yourself enough credit. Even though... having friends helping you is better than doing it alone.

[riku doesn't get to say shit after he spent a literal year running away. it's fine. sora thinks he's being sneaky and not at all suspicious.]

Our game had these rules...we had to do things a certain way without doing too much or too little in order to have a chance to fix stuff. Except the whole thing was just a test anyway. In the end everybody started working together to vote if we'd redo the cycle again like we'd done before. I'm not sure how many cycles we went through before that because we didn't remember them.

But I think...those two would have been friends I had in every single one.

[STOP.]

You... did it over and over again?

[Well, now he's really frowning. What does Sora mean he doesn't remember how many cycles?! That's HORRIBLE. He's electing to ignore the sappy mention they would have been his friends in every single one.

Sora always can make friends.]

...to get the best ending. The one that'd send everyone back home.

[That he understands.]

So we were told. And I believe it, because the Leaders had memories of past cycles and some of the stuff we learned made it pretty obvious, too. I think that guy said the last round was the twentieth. [sora's fine. he picks off a piece of cotton candy to hold out to meow wow and see if he'll eat it.]

At the end, we were given one last vote. "If this wasn't the last chance and you failed, would you be willing to go through this again?" Some of us picked no, but other people picked yes. And it didn't matter what we voted because we were successful that time and everything was over. He said he was doing all of this as a test and research about how to save the worlds. Or maybe destroy them.

[. . .]

I don't know who he is. But he had a black coat. [he does not think to specify because even a KH2 Riku should know what a black coat means.]

[Sora is really out here throwing all these frown-inducing things at him, huh?! HELLO. As an idiot who absolutely waltzed around in a black coat, he knows what it means, and his expression visibly hardens.]

...The Organization.

[Well, shit. Now he's wondering if they missed something, if the Organization was behind what happened with him, too. Was the plot hole... something they were messing with?

Hilariously, even though Sora can't see what he's thinking about, he can absolutely tell Riku's brain is going inward a mile a minute, spiraling uncontrollably. Komory may have stolen some cotton candy, but the bat chirrups uncertainly.]

He was researching how to cycle a world's fate...?

[surprise! meow wow eats his cotton candy but he seems to be wiggling less, picking up on the uneasiness of the conversation. sora on the other hand shakes his head a bit. he can tell riku's starting to spiral, so time to put an end to that.]

Not the Organization. But he knew Xehanort. He mentioned him on his own. [so that was fun!] He was really weird and vague about it, but that seemed to be close. Like...maybe something to do with saving the worlds that have been destroyed but destroying others. The heart of the worlds. The place we were in was actually virtual. Data. The whole thing wasn't really real, but it felt real. What felt like months was really only a few minutes.

[...] He knew enough about us to run these tests, too. And enough to take away certain memories to see how we'd change things. I wish I had more time to talk to him, but he was just a hologram. He wouldn't give me answers.

Edited 2021-09-27 19:38 (UTC)

[He looks very :\ about that. Behind the irritation and frustration in his eyes is definitely a little worry. Not the Organization, but in a black coat and knows Xehanort...

Ugh.

His eyes lower to Meow Wow, even if he's looking through the puppycat really. Data. He doesn't know whether to be relieved, or upset. It wasn't real then. But it felt real.

And being data just means someone has access to all of that data. He wonders if... Yamato and Taichi would have any idea how to help. (laughs in Riku's data future)]

That doesn't surprise me. [...] Data and memories. It sounds a lot like the Organization even if he isn't. [The black coat doesn't help.] Well... don't worry. We'll find him, and we'll get more answers. And if he's up to something bad, we'll stop him.

Don't tell me you're trying to go back there, Sora.

[the worst part of everything is knowing that riku hasn't experienced so much, so sora doesn't even know how much he can say. actually, no, the worst is not getting that guy's name.

tell your best friend about your boyfriends, coward.]

That's what I thought, too. But...I dunno. I don't know how good or bad it'll be, but I have an idea of where to find him. I just don't know what to do after that.

[but there's a slightly off-kilter grin.]

No way! I have other places to get to first. I don't even know if the Realm exists anymore. It was...kind of glitching and falling apart. But I know that guy was doing these tests to use on our worlds. We have to go after him as soon as we figure out how to get to him. [...] But right now? Maybe we should just enjoy the festival.

[sap. but also, like...sora is Well Aware of where he's going again when he leaves, and sometimes a dumbass is selfish and wants to spend as much time with his friends having fun as possible. he does not realize it's probably a very obvious tell that something's wrong though. oh well.]

[Wow. How like Sora. Yet again pretending things isn't a bucket of shit hitting a 50 mph ceiling fan. That grin doesn't wipe the concerned, serious look off his face, you know, pal!

But the change of topic does make him feel weird trying to frustratedly steer it back on the previous course. (At least Sora doesn't seem interested in finding a way back for answers.) So he awkwardly shifts, and then notices the chunk taken out of the cotton candy.]

Hey. [As if to say haha!, Komory chitters and flaps both wings. Riku sighs. He glances at Sora, and then he looks at the other stalls. It feels wrong to enjoy this after hearing all of that.] Lead the way then.

Maybe we'll run into your friends.

[THERE IS NO GOOD LEAD IN FOR "hey by the way i died saving everybody but it's fine i'm vibing in a void somewhere", so riku's just going to have to deal? as it is, he laughs at komory and watches the bat, listening to meow wow squeak at his heels as they bumble along.]

Maybe we will. And maybe we'll run into yours, too. If they're around.

[this is a very pointed way of saying riku owes him. tell him about your friends!!!]

[Freaking Sora. He doesn't know how to tell his best friend about HIMSELF much less about the fact he managed to grab TWO boyfriends by the collar.

Especially when Sora.... Nevermind. Not the time to unpack all that right now.

Purposefully, he keeps his gaze away from Sora as they bobble along with the puppycat and bat. For the second time, he's looking around as if he expects someone to bust out of nowhere and flag him down.]

Yeah... [It's all he says for a long moment.] ...Taichi and... Yamato.

They're... important, too.

[Like Clem and Lup.]

[now is absolutely the time to unpack everything. but as it is, sora doesn't seem to mind that riku's not looking at him, busying himself with his cotton candy and watching their dream eaters to make sure they stay out of trouble.

riku's riku. he's seemingly content either way.]

Yeah? What're they like? [he explained lup and clem (briefly) so it's only fair.] Were you guys on the same team or something?

[The whiplash of doing this thread along with the other one.

Also OH BOY and this is NOT fair (Lup and Clem were so BRIEF). Remember how he's not great with his feelings, too? Yeah.]

It was a school, so there were... dorms. Me, and Iris, and Annie, and Hugo were dorm heads of our own dorms. Yamato was in Fall with me... I guess because... we've got a lot in common. Taichi was in Spring, but moved to Fall later to be with Yamato.

[HE HASN'T SAID WHAT THEY WERE LIKE.]

Taichi reminds me a lot of you. Yamato reminds me a lot of myself. I guess that's why they've always been friends. They're... "Digi Destined"?

[what does this mean]

[it's fine probably. also it's very obvious what his thoughts about school are given the way he pulls a face almost immediately.]

Dorm heads, huh. [riku in a position of leadership....yeah, he can see that, actually, considering what he knows. but he looks a little curious when riku goes on to describe the gays.]

...what were they destined for? Have they been friends as long as you and me? [that doesn't sound so bad. friends are good. he's assuming they're close to their age, too, so he doesn't ask.]

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