meadowlarklogs | one night of magic rush

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one night of magic rush

WHO: Cain, Prompto, Hideki Maeda, and you!
WHERE: The popular Asylum club.
WHEN: Night of October 26.
WHAT: Cain and Prompto's joint birthdays!
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Beyond drinking/smoking, general wild party behavior, and fake friendship, there shouldn't be much. Will update as needed.

[Set deep in the downtown of New Amsterdam's entertainment district is Asylum, arguably the most popular club in the city. The exterior is cool steel beams and tasteful futuristic architecture with a long line down the corridor, suited bouncers posed at the entrance all armed with a virtual guest list. Its interior is fashioned with bright, colorful lighting dynamic to the music of the infamous DJ Semicolon, high ceilings and acoustic sounds to lend that feeling of a constant full-body hum. Any partygoers on the guest list for this event will be funneled toward the VIP section. They will have received an invitation a few days prior via their Cooltalk profiles. Jason is specifically blacklisted, sorry buddy.

DANCE YOUR HEART OUT. Nearly impossible to book without deep pockets or wide-reaching connections, Semicolon is at the top of their game mixing popular contemporary hits with Whitney Houston's classics. From song to song, Semicolon provides a unique and talented contrast of the slow to the energetic, so no matter your dancing style, you'll find something to move you on the dance floor.

DROWN YOUR... LIVER. Courtesy of the party's host, Hideki Maeda, the VIP section's private bar will provide an ever-flowing river of your favorite expensive high-proof alcohol. Pick your poison.

CHILL OUT. Tired on your feet from too much dancing, or just need a break from the packed atmosphere? There are plenty of comfortable areas where you can relax and take it easy until you're ready to get back out there. The lights around this area cycle through different colors in reflection of Semicolon's performance set, so a slower song might lend toward romantic shades of red while a faster-paced song is brighter blue.

SMOKE, EAT & MINGLE. Asylum will be serving real, fresh meat at this party, so enjoy that luxury while it lasts. There is also an outdoor area with a beautiful view over the city itself if you want to take your vape pen out there for a smoke, just get some air, or see who's around for a chat.]

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[Prompto isn't the difficult associate, he understands that pointed reference. Hideki is another beast. Nothing he feels he can't handle, but there's some weariness in how it's pulled him into a familiar dynamic: distance and concealment. Maybe he isn't wearing the same guise, maybe it doesn't bear the closeness of before, but those barriers are still there.]

Best friend is one thing to call it. Not really accurate.

[Dark eyes travel back toward the door, an exit off the balcony. A touch of paranoia reaches Cain. He'll keep the details under a wrap.]

Hideki doesn't know what we are, obviously. What we can do. He's separate from all that. But his parents are pretty powerful and well-known, you've heard of 'em, right? [Everyone knows the Maedas, even the extent of their influence may be shades more nebulous.] Beats me why he likes me and Prompto so much. Maybe we're just that cool.

[Up a tree? Cain's curiosity rises, eyes traveling the height of the trunk. He's never climbed a tree in his life. With gloved hands on the bark, he begins a tentative haul upward, following Abel's ascent until he can claim a spot on the same branch. It seems to support both of their weights, whether a benefit of the simulation or the tree's actual strength.

Once settled, he manages to loop both arms around Abel's waist, leaning his cheek on one slight shoulder with eyes out on the distant horizon. Somewhere back in reality, he is most certainly wrapped around Abel's physical body just the same.]

How often did you come out here like this?

I'm sure you can. We might even graduate to a jive if you manage not to step on my toes.

[ An old joke from an old life, that. Peggy watches the smoke curl into the air with mild interest and lets the silence settle comfortably between them for a few heartbeats. Strange, to think of something so normal as dancing the way they used to. Dance halls, big bands with big brass that never stopped playing even over the wail of air raid sirens. Maybe some things never change.

Peggy purses her lips thoughtfully for a moment then shifts her angle, leaning an elbow on the rail so she can face Cain — and she holds out a hand for the pen, fingers crooking twice. ]

Come on, then.

[A sharp laugh precedes him surrendering the device, sleek and black with a silver button that glows when engaged, heat filling the chamber attached to the cartridge of nicotine oil.]

I've got no fucking idea what a jive is, Agent Carter. Just a warning.

[He stands faced toward the railing, posture slanted slightly, one hand on a hip. He knows he'll need to head back in lest Hideki note an extended absence, but for this moment he'll enjoy the sincerity.]

Press the silver button so it turns red, then inhale. Pretty easy. Not like a real cigarette, but it does the trick.

[Abel may have made a few adjustments to make sure nobody crashed their bike, went over the divider, injured themselves on the play equipment, or broke a tree branch. It's his idyllic space, away from responsibility and worry.]

[He watches Cain climb, aware that this is probably his first tree, ready to reach out and grab him if he slips. But he makes it up just fine, of course, his strong arms coming to wrap around Abel's waist in a hold that absolutely feels so real. He rests his head on Cain's and watches the sun with his hands folded over Cain's arms.]

I was here almost every day the week before I deployed. Just reminding myself what it was all for. But before then... I guess it varied. Sometimes I was too busy to come for weeks or months, sometimes I was up here in the middle of the night hiding from my dad's handlers because I couldn't spend another minute in the house. [A far cry from Cain's mother calling him inside from the wreckage of the Frontier...] I had my own room, but it was filled with what I could afford to have them find. Textbooks, computers, motorcycle schematics... This tree listened to everything I felt.

[He listens, watching as the sun begins to crest the rim of the sky in threads of pink, attention rapt on the display of brilliant colors. It never looked anything like this on Mars. He's used to pale muted blues, not this bleed of red and tangerine and colors he's never seen in this context. The morning is perfect, almost cloudless. Only the slightest dewey fog still lingers.]

Mm. Wish I could see your room. [Cain's voice touches a bit of suggestion, against better judgment, nosing up against the curve of Abel's ear where it rests nearby.] I'd climb right under the sheets.

[Maybe not for the most innocent of intentions, but there's more to even that. He wonders if the fabric of the pillowcase would smell like him.]

[The suggestion is noted and Abel's cheeks go bright pink. God, wouldn't that be something? Cain taking him completely apart in a bed he'd been too scared to so much as masturbate in, under his homophobic father's roof. A 'lowlife colonist', balls deep in his screaming, begging son-- it's the most extreme Fuck You Abel's ever fantasized.]

[But that's not what they're doing here, not now.] And that would make them the warmest they've ever been. [Abel turns and leans in to kiss Cain, soft and slow.] This may seem beautiful and perfect, but it was always cold and lonely. I was always hiding. Until I met you.

Alexei I can't give you a fancy party or enough alcohol to fill a canal, but I can tell you that you make my life better. I'm so lucky you were born and I'm lucky I was assigned to you regardless of the reason. I love who I am when I'm with you.

And I told you, I don't want some fancy party.

[Arms squeeze around Abel's middle, struggling not to let those words hit him too hard. He's never juggled his emotions well. They tend to burn too hot, poorly managed, and he's unused to the bare act of vulnerability. It was difficult even around his family, proud and overwhelming as they were at times. Distant, unreachable at others. Cain sighs into the kiss, allowing his eyes to slip briefly closed.]

Crazy to think we could've gone our entire lives without meeting. Unless I got arrested, got blackmailed into Project Thebes... [His own face is warm, so he ducks his head. Words and proclamations like that don't come as easily to Cain as they sometimes seem to come to Abel.] Who knows where we might have ended up.

[Yes, Cain absolutely did tell him, but he's spent all night feeling like he couldn't possibly do enough to express what Cain means to him-- it'll settle soon enough, when he replays the memory of Cain's face when he saw the landscape, his yells and whistles on the bike. It'll settle.]

Who knows. I wish you hadn't gone through all of it, of course. [But he's thought about it. In those few days before they'd talked everything out, thoughts of whether he would have been better off having never met Cain prodded at his brain like tiny malevolent devils with pitchforks. Ultimately just annoying, but so persistent.]

I guess it's selfish of me to say I'm glad I met you, isn't it? It's like I'm glossing over everything that happened to get you there. I'm not happy any of that happened to you, you know that right...?

[please love yourself a little]

Well, I just have a really random request!

[he says 'random,' but clearly it's something he's been thinking about for a while. one has to wonder how long he has been thinking about it, though, for it's pretty specific.]

It was my birthday yesterday but I think it still counts. Can I have a blessing? Like! A Loki-esque blessing. Personalized and all!

[bruh]

I just wanted to show my appreciation!

[it mostly can be summed up to: it's prompto. on the other hand, past their whole friendship being of the superficial sort because of their plot to get closer to hideki, cain's presence has offered prompto with something akin to camaraderie that he's been so sorely missing — even if he feels, more often than not, like he doesn't quite belong in cain's circle.]

[he's a bit of a tryhard, but at least he's got good intentions and knows when to back out.]

There's a place close to Spiegelstraat! It's got a bunch of cool shit like those. They open twice a week, which is why I never knew of them before now! They'll match your shirt.

Why did I get the impression you were a rich kid...?

[prompto jokes, but it's good enough of an indication that he's listening, pushing aside his current frustrations to listen to abel's retelling—appreciative of the hand on his back, head pressed to an open palm.]

Sounds like the type of party one of my friends would have. It's all about putting up a show, keeping up with expectations, right? Sounds like the worst.

[he wouldn't know what that's like—a parent showing off their kid, even if it's to get something out of it.]

[more importantly, though, prompto answers:]

Of course we're friends, Abel. So long as you don't mind that I'm a pleb.

[his eyes widen comically for a moment as he takes the small box sansa produces. he just kind of stares at them talking to one another, his hands wrapped around the sides of the box, unable to decide what to do with it...]

[talk of there being another gift from jon has him feeling something. when's the last time he had a birthday with gifts, outside of when he was around noctis and the others? he doesn't feel deserving.]

You guys are being way too nice...

[should he open this? he doesn't know. he grabs at one of the waffles...]

Are you sure all these gifts are for me?

How 'bout a second to let me get familiar with it?

[he jokes, having already scanned his ID into the camera's system and getting the interface to display into his neural implant, a selection of options and filters and optimizing available for his brainwaves. it's so much different than the usual.]

[but he's pressing onwards, selecting the basic and easiest of settings—and snapping shots of hideki and cain as he can.]

Woah. The images are super crisp...

[someone's already enjoying using his new toy]

Oh, oh, there's a thing with like apricot and raspberry glaze? It's a pastry! They're delicious! Do you think there's still some around? Y'should totally try it, Alex.

[try and spoil him, all he wants is for her to enjoy some sweet goodness.]

You should grab some more meat, too!

[he taps at his nose with a finger]

Yeah, I definitely will.

[the idea of having dinner plans for a birthday dinner have totally made his day.]

I'll be looking forward to it!

All credit goes to the guy who organized it. You tried talking with Hideki yet? He's...

[a glance around the place. foolish, there's nothing to see,]

...around.

[he does open the box as soon as she says it's okay (what is gift-opening etiquette?), actually staring at its content for a while, not quite sure what it's supposed to be. he scans the shape and hopefully reverse-searching it will make him look less foolish than what he feels—]

[except there's a birthday e-card on his field of vision which catches him by surprise, as is the recipe for a cake he vaguely recognizes.]

Ah!

[there's a look of earnest, genuine surprise on his features.]

Oh, that's so cute. [the e-card, but then he's... pointing at the box in his hands.] I'm also really, like, uncultured. What are these?

[lmao]

...I hadn't realized these kind of stores sold stuff to wear while outside?

[he's trying to keep calm and unashamed, since they're "both adults" and all that. however, there's an obvious flush warping all the way up to his ears, his voice definitely, purposely, being kept low—as if that would help him sound more serious than what he feels.]

Isn't this a fetish people have?

[the more he scrolls down the catalog... the more his brows are raising in surprise......]

Edited 2019-06-09 22:30 (UTC)

[prompto's hype increases soon as tommy glues himself to his side, prompto just as easily putting an arm over the other's shoulders as he opens the box with minimal difficulty.]

Yo, way to build up the hype!

[at the message, he's quickly opening up cooltalk—only to be greeted with a notification of purchased filters.]

Hey! These are pretty awesome?!

[have a light punch to the side] Thanks, buddy.

[he's flushing but feels a spark of joy at the contact. it's really sweet what he has with dutch.]

Thanks.

[it's more earnest and genuine than his usual yelling, an abashed look as he scratches the back of his sweaty head, smiling regardless.]

Or, y'know, happy petri-dish day to me, right?

[at least he's joking about it... even if it's halfway in bad taste. but hey!]

[wait, they're having one of those kind of conversations now.]

What's a cow!

[because that much he's got]

Should I be worried that it'll explode?!

[miscommunication to the max]

[The grin isn't keen on fading, even as he takes the sunglasses out of their box and puts them on, pushed up into dark hair (because if he tried to wear them properly he'd just go blind in the dark of the club). Of course, he's never heard of that store, but it doesn't surprise him Prompto was able to uncover it.]

Thanks for finding an accessory to match my shirt.

[It's a little sly, but at least he doesn't tack Sunshine onto the end of that as is his tendency.]

I'll have to take a rain check on your gift tonight, but I'll get you something too, okay? What do you want?

[He doesn't feel bad for not doing it -- assumed it was known between the two of them that they wouldn't -- but he's not going to let Prompto get away with it one-sided. Cain isn't the type, he doesn't like an uneven scale.]

[Most days, he suspects he's benefited more than Abel has in this dynamic. Maybe that's not fair to say, because he knows they've both had ups and downs through the course of all that's happened, but truth stands somewhere. As much as Abel is proud of who he is when they're together, Cain is certain he's made a better person because of it. He doesn't know how to put that into words so simply. Abel makes it seem effortless. Is a part of him still stuck in cowardly fear of what it could mean if he's wrong?

What it could mean if, deep down, he's not as good a person as Abel believes he is? Apart from what happened with the Alliance, maybe Abel would have gone on to meet some other soft-hearted person who wanted to be open to love and emotions and could draw Abel out of his shell. Cain's not delusional enough to think he's the only person in the world who's suited for Abel. He doesn't believe in soulmates.

But now that he has this, he's too selfish to let it go. Whoever else could have opened Abel's eyes to the world don't matter, because they're not here. Maybe it's another world, one of the countless separate parallel realities that seem to wind like ribbons through the universe, as New Amsterdam has shown him, but it isn't this one they're in now. That matters to Cain. His hold tightens slightly.]

Would've been worse. Would've been stuck in prison for years, who knows how long, if they hadn't offered me that deal. Don't regret taking it either. [He lets out a thin breath.] And I know you're not. But I can be happy it happened to me, right?

[This is a far better future than he thought was laid out for himself.]

You wanna go back to our bed now?

It wasn't intentional! But you could say I got an eye for things.

[he grins, tapping at the side of his face close to his eyes, as if to emphasize his point.]

As a photographer and all that, I'm always watching.

[shuddup, idiot.]

[but, overall, he's beaming excitedly. he's really glad that cain likes the gift, even if it wasn't something necessarily flashy or too sentimental in value.]

But, like, don't even worry about it. I wouldn't know what to ask for in the first place, and I feel like you talking to me is already legit cool. [dork]

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one night of magic rush

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crying at how pretty those tie bars are

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