aterat | It's a Watts party! (Just don't tell him)

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It's a Watts party! (Just don't tell him)

Who; Aerith + YOU
What; Potluck party
Where; Gray building's downstairs common room
When; Sunday June 26th; after 4pm
Warnings; None

Aerith co-opted the common room of the gray building starting on Saturday when she began the process of decoration. The most important part of any decoration (especially for Watts) was the flowers and Aerith had put together a few center pieces for tables. Each flower that she'd chosen had symbolized friendship in some way and they were set up in the center of small tables that had been brought inside. Of course she wasn't the one that moved those tables, she had a trust bodyguard for things like that, but she did the decorating!

And the cooking! The main attraction was a pretzel bar in the center of the room. Please, thank Cloud for bringing it in and Jacob for making the pretzel rack at Aerith's request. The soft pretzels were premade and there were plenty for everyone who may come through to have several (if not more). In addition to that there were also several dipping sauces to choose from including cheese, caramel, cinnamon sugar, honey mustard, and a spicy ginger sauce with chili flakes (eat at your own risk).

A table next to it had Materia Xiaolongbao. Yellow is crab flavor, black is soybean, blue is pork, green is cilantro, and red is spicy shrimp. Next to those are tiny moogle sweet bean buns. They fit in the palm of your hand but some of the moogles look...a lot better than others. She did her best!

There was another table with a few drinks set up for people to grab including a materia bomb cocktail with a bit of alcohol and different flavored materia ice (peach, strawberry, and blueberry) and bright green bubble tea with pop bubbles in the bottom. The green tea is flavored like something very different than one might expect it to be, it's a bit bit bitter and yet also a bit sharp, almost biting. It's meant to be the flavor of wind, whatever that's supposed to be. The pop bubbles are extremely sour and explode in the mouth with the sourness. The drink is also somehow fizzy, don't ask how.

A third table was empty save for the friendship bouquet at it's center. There was a little handwritten note on the table saying:

Leave your dishes here! Complete with a heart.

Aerith herself can be found wandering around and paying close attention to the drink table, making sure to run back to the kitchen quickly to grab more drinks if they run low.

OOC: Feel free to use this log as an open thing for anyone to mingle and get to know each other. Characters are welcome even if they didn't bring a dish themselves, but the more dishes the better! Anyone is welcome to come even if they didn't know she was throwing this party, it'd be pretty obvious that there was something going on in the Gray Building and she'll be leaving the door open with a small table that has a friendship flower bouquet on it. Please have some fun!

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“I do, but thank you for the suggestion.” He responded politely, but clearly relieved she wasn’t going to push the subject. At least not at the moment. People did tend to bring it up on occasion, where it seemed a good time to revisit the suggestion. Which was certainly not a bad idea, the teen could stand to be a little less rigid on the subject, but… He still needed some time to come to terms with how different he was and that he wasn’t about to slip down that slope so easily as he feared.

Yusuke paused as he’d been about to take another bite, considering the idea that perhaps an aquarium could be willed into existence… It genuinely didn’t seem the far-fetched to the teen considering some of the things he’d seen in his life. “Perhaps? There must be some catalyst in how this world develops new places and locations. Maybe it is as simple as the collective will of those who reside here?” Stranger things had happened, certainly, but he did hope that he had the chance to show his new friend something like it one day. It seemed an utter tragedy that she might not get to if she found his drawings as charming as she suggested. Then again, that also made him wonder how the less pleasant aspects might be continuing to appear. So… it was probably more complicated than that. “We’ll have to put much thought into it, just to be on the safe side.” He added with a pleased smile, they could at least hope!

“It certainly has seemed to have brought quite the crowd together. It’s good of you to have arranged such a nice gathering with that thought in mind.” He responded with a small smile. Still, Yusuke’s mind was already abuzz with ideas for painting again. To have another willing model so soon was an exciting thing he hadn’t anticipated! Perhaps something with flowers involved… yes, that might be lovely. “Thank you! I shall have to arrange for a time when your schedule allows, of course. Sittings do take a while, but I will make sure that you at least have a chance to enjoy it.” Breaks would be important, given she probably wasn’t used to sitting in one position for long periods of time, and to make sure she found a comfortable seat to at least relax while he worked.

"It might make sense if it was the collective will. They kept saying that we were brought here just to live. And...the planet did say it was learning from us." Ever since that conversation she'd wondered if it hadn't meant that maybe the collective will of people here would shape how the world turned out. But, it'd always been just that: a though without much to back it up. Maybe it'd have helped if she had something to support the thought, proof of a pattern or something like that. Unfortunately, she'd never really investigated anything like that and it wasn't likely to be something she would. "Exactly! We'll just have to make sure we think about it every day," she winked at him though, as if she wasn't entirely serious there.

"I'm sure someone else would have thought about it eventually," she said with a shrug. There was a hint of pride in her smile though, really she was kinda happy to have someone notice her hard work. "I can be free whenever, I own my own shop so my hours are mine to make." Nice part of being the one who owned the shop: she set the hours. Though...now that he was talking she was starting to think she may not have fully realized what she was agreeing to.

“The planet said that?” He asked curiously, glancing up from his plate again at the idea that perhaps the theory wasn’t as far off the mark as he’d thought when he suggested it. How did a planet speak, after all? Unless there was someone tied to it closely enough to be able to know such things, perhaps. Still, as she winked and suggested they should think about an aquarium every day, it was hard to not smile a little at that. “Not a difficult task, I must admit. I’ve always been rather fond of thinking of the times I’ve spent in one! Perhaps it will make the perfect test to see if it actually works.” He added with a lighter tone. He was pretty serious himself, as the teen realized that stranger things happened all the time.

“Perhaps, but you have thought of it sooner and it’s been a delightful way to get to know some people I have not had the opportunity to meet and learn from.” And lots of delicious food to try to eat without the need to worry about paying for it, of course, which was also a great benefit to him when spending time away from his residence. “I see… Then I will be in touch to arrange for our first session a few days ahead of time to ensure you have time to decide your schedule for the day!” No take backs, Aerith! Yusuke was too caught up in the idea now. He would be terribly sad for her to back out!

"Mmhmm," she said with a little nod. "It's very young though, so I'm not entirely sure how truthful it was. Not that I think it was lying, just that it might not really understand itself." Her tone indicated that she definitely didn't mean to insult the little new...planet. She trusted that it'd been honest with what it knew, it was just so young that maybe it didn't really know. "It also seemed afraid of the portal that brings things in. I think because the things that come and the people that come in are what influences it." Which meant their theory had some strong back up to it!

"Hmm, maybe it will make a good test..." and that she actually meant. It was something they seemed to both have some sort of interest in too, so it wouldn't even be that hard.

"Thank you!" She did really appreciate him saying that. "Honestly, I was pretty worried nobody would show up." That would have been so completely embarrassing, but it'd been a big fear. It seemed like some people preferred to keep almost completely to themselves here and she was surprised to see that even a few of those people showed up. "I can't wait to hear from you then," she said in the most enthusiastic voice she could muster. She didn't want to take it back, but she was definitely a bit...surprised that was what he wanted.

Yusuke found that information to at least backup the idea that this world had really been starting over from a world-ending scenario of some kind. But to think the planet itself wasn’t rebuilding so much as it was simply brand new and unsure of itself? Shaking his head, he had to wonder how many things might appear over time if the planet was afraid of the outside influences changing things for the worst instead of the better. “That’s quite fascinating and certainly provides considerable weight to the theory of how things appear in this place.” It would be nice to think they could actually hope to understand the world better.

Perhaps the right influences, the right thoughts and wishes might be more helpful than they thought to helping it along for the better. So he smiled his agreement. “It shall be, I think. The proof of it working should be easy enough to spot as well, considering the space and location such a place would require.” And if the test failed, well, they simply would never see an aquarium. But that was a sad thought, and positive thinking to put the idea out there into the world seemed as important. After all… He’d seen stranger things happen!

“It would seem those worries were unfounded, though I can understand how that might be a concern. Hard to have a potluck without guests… Though I think that in itself would inspire more to gather and contribute.” He added with a smile. Even he had pulled himself away from his projects to attend and enjoy the delicious treats there were to be found.

The longer she got to know Yusuke, the less surprising she’d find him and his ideas, perhaps. “Wonderful! I’ll need a little time to gather supplies, but I’ll certainly reach out to you soon.”

Sometimes she thought that maybe she should try again, see what else she could find out, if anything else had changed. Deep down she knew she should do that. But something always stopped her. In a lot of ways this was the life she'd always dreamed of: something normal. Here she could almost completely forget about her past and the truth of her destiny. Instead she could just be the local florist that sometimes threw secret parties for friends that never thought she was scary for how weird she was. The fear she had was that all of that would be ruined if she tried again.

So, ultimately she just nodded at his comments and smiled. "We've gotten some nicer things lately too, so maybe we're doing a good job. And if we're doing a good job...we deserve the aquarium." Logic at it's finest.

"Exactly, a potluck without guests would have just been sad. And maybe a bit embarrassing. But luckily it's all worked out!" Better yet it'd worked out in a way where it actually seemed like people were having a decent time. That made her extremely glad she'd managed to pull it off. "I'm glad my first event like this went well."

She gave him a smile and an awkward chuckle. "If you need help with supplies let me know."

It was a fair desire, really. If Yusuke knew how complicated such an ability made her life and how nice it was for her to be able to pursue something more normal and in line with things she loved? He would understand, even as he was curious about how this world worked and what to expect from it. “A reward for a job well done could be seen as important to motivate continued productivity and improvements to this world, couldn’t it?” He added with a smile. “So an aquarium would be quite perfect, I think.” Not too grand at all, right? A whole facility that contained numerous sea-creatures the would require space and conditions for their survival.

Maybe that was a bit much for wishful thinking, but it was hard to not want something so familiar here. Especially if it was something that others might not have had the chance to enjoy! The aquarium, planetarium and museum were all such wonderful places to visit. At least he could actually look up in this place and see the stars far more easily than one could in Tokyo… But an aquarium was less easy to find alternatives for!

“I believe your first event went more than well, it’s been quite enjoyable! And I can see that it’s a feeling shared, by the expressions and chatter I’ve observed since arriving.” Yusuke was terribly observant after all, taking in expressions and trying to guess things about the people he watched as he tried to understand the world around him better.

At the question of supplies, he shook his head. “I’m sure I will be able to handle the supplies, I’ve managed to secure quite a few things since I arrived to add on to those that I arrived with. It shouldn’t be too hard to gather the rest, there’s a rather nice shop in the market where I’ve found excellent pigments and such.” And he would blow through his budget, as per usual. But his art was his life, really, and it was hard for him to deny himself the supplies he needed to continue to practice and work on his skills. Aerith was already doing enough, in his opinion, to just be volunteering to be his model. Not to mention that she was going to be giving him a space to display completed work! “I’ll be in touch in plenty of time for you to decide if you have the time on a day for our meeting or not.”

"A reward, hm?" she gave him a little wink. "I like the sound of that. If they want us to keep being so productive they better reward us with an aquarium." It was definitely not too grand at all. Nor was it too much for them to expect, it was a reasonable reward to expect to be given. After all they were asking them to heal an entire planet! If they were expecting something grand like that it was only fair that they got a grand reward. That only seemed fair.

"Aw, thank you. That's nice of you to say," she said with a wide grin. That was quite the compliment for her to get when she'd been relatively nervous that nobody at all would show up. The idea had actually been really embarrassing to think about. "Everyone does seem really chatty! I'm glad that people brought things and actually stayed around to talk to each other."

She nodded in confirmation. "If you say so. I'm glad you've been able to find things along the way here. I'm sure I'll be ready whenever you get in touch. I hope you enjoy the rest of the little party though!"

“I do say so, but you have my word that I’ll be in touch soon!” He responded, clearly more than a little excited about this new project. Yusuke would probably be thinking of little else while making preparations to begin. But for now, she was right. They should probably get back to mingling as the point of a potluck was. Plus…? She was the host. He had probably taken up more of her time than was strictly fair when there were so many other people she could be checking in with. “Thank you, Aerith. I will. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day as well.” He added with a polite nod, before they went their separate ways.

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It's a Watts party! (Just don't tell him)

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