lifeaftr | It's time to party!

Who: Anyone!
What: After all the shit that went down in August and September and to help the newbies get settled, it's time for a party!
When: 26th October
Where: Outside the Denny
Warnings: Label any relevant warnings in your posts! Otherwise none that I can think of.

[It took a while to organise but it’s finally here! Outside the Denny is a warm fire with dragon meat and all sorts of other meat cooking on it. There is also food strewn on tables and various modern music in the background thanks to Michael’s phone.

Not only that but there are also games on a few separate tables provided by the Denny.

Feel free to bring your own food, drinks and games. Maybe you’re even helping cook some of the food yourself? Or you are keeping watch to make sure nobody causes any trouble! Or are you the person causing trouble yourself? ~~Of course, none of you would dare do that, would you? WOULD YOU????~~ Or are you having a dance? Or maybe you're that wallflower who is just sitting there drinking and refusing to talk to people? Either way, feel free to come up with your own prompts!]

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[He loosens up, exhaling and running a hand through his hair.] Sí, I figured as much.

[Time to gather up these cards, they're too cool to be left behind...] Do you want to get out of here? Go someplace quieter?

[He sees the man gathering up the cards, and the tension doesn't fade, just clamps more and more tightly around his stomach and he wants to run.

He wants to get out of here. He wants to go someplace quieter. But if he says that, if Héctor hears one acceptance of one thing he's offering, Yukio will never hear the end of it.]

I... [No. He's stuck, one word out and the rest choking him as he tries to wrest control back.

But he can't...

He shakes his head. Hard. Somewhere between trying to clear his head and denying the offer.]

[The deck is tucked away into his hip pouch and he stands, scooping up his hat and fiddling with the rim of it. Restless fingers, belonging to a skeleton only pretending to have a clue. What the hell's happened to Yukio that led him almost all the way to his breaking point, this suspicious of a little kindness? What does Héctor not know, and does he want to find out?]

Come on, let's go outside.

[Because obviously Yukio wants to, he just can't admit it.]

[Let's, Héctor says, tucking things away and picking them up and that's not what Yukio wants at all, that's not what he can handle, not when he just wants to be alone.

But--

He can't just--

He nods, silently.]

[Being alone clearly hasn't done him much good so far--it's not going to happen, the skelepest won't let it. He smiles faintly, waving for Yukio to lead the way and not saying anything for the moment. A brief reprieve.]

[He wants to run. He wants to run to the mana pools and throw himself in and see where he comes out and maybe never see any of these people again. Certainly, he doesn't want to see Héctor again.

Instead, he moves quietly, smoothly outside. He's still tense, but it's more the tightly-wound braced focus of someone waiting for consequences than the barely-constrained hostility of earlier.

He's in trouble, and he knows it.]

[That's alright, he's used to people not wanting to see him. Wanting to forget him. Wishing he would disappear. Perfectly understandable, it's the people who like him who are oddballs.

He clacks his way out after Yukio, a barefoot old skeleton with a bad leg, same as always.]

Better...?

[If he opens his mouth, what's going to come out? He doesn't know.

So he doesn't say anything. His tail isn't held out beside him anymore, but holding it low and close isn't really any better. Like a dog with its tail between its legs.]

[He keeps following as long as Yukio continues along, a gangly sidekick who needs to learn to shut his mouth. Silence might get the guy to open up, but he isn't given the chance.]

Listen, I'll bring you more to eat, alright? At least... accept that. It's no problem. I like to cook and I can't eat much myself, so...

[He doesn't want it. He doesn't want any of this, any sympathy or pity or assistance or anything like it.

But he's trapped. He doesn't respond, can't respond. What would he even say? Nothing he's said has worked, and he can't trust himself to phrase anything well when he's this upset.]

[This time it probably means no... and he doesn't care. Yukio is right, it won't stop him. Nobody goes hungry, not when there is plenty of food for all.]

It's okay. [If it were him, what would he be thinking...] It's not a waste. Not of time or effort or food.

I said you don't have to. [He's trying one more time. He's quiet and soft and trying one more time to get this to stop.

What does he have to do to get this skeleton to stop? How many times does he have to turn down his help? How is he supposed to handle this? He can't.]

Heard you the first ten times you said that.

[Friendly teasing, nothing more.] There's not much I have to do, period. Plenty I want to do, though.

[He's doing it on purpose. He's not just oblivious, or ignoring things, he's doing this on purpose. It's not that Yukio wasn't clear enough, that he didn't have the right words, that he didn't know what to say or how to say it.

All Yukio can do now is put his head down and let whatever is going to happen happen. He can't fight back, not against this.]

It's time to party!

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