Open: In a shout of joy at the only shrine where you come benighted and leave benign

[vineleaves]

Dark has come and gone again, which means it’s time to party.

In some ways the party is very similar to last year’s - same large banquet room in the mansion, a similarly large abundance of food and drink, and the promise of a night full of letting loose for everyone in attendance. It’s far from a direct clone of the previous party though. For starters, Dionysus has had Claudius help him in all of the planning (sometimes a god’s blessings come in the form of enrichment for one’s enclosure). They’ve gotten several of the mansion’s residents to agree to play live music during the night, and Dionysus was able to find some, ah, more widely appreciated CDs to play during the breaks between performers.

The room has been decorated to the nines again, but where last year he had green vines draping on the walls diffusing the glow from the twinkling fairy lights, this year he has strung up swooping vines of silver, glittering almost like tinsel. The large food tables have an almost ridiculous amount of things to munch on; there should be something for everyone there.

It should go without saying that the beverage tables are well-stocked, considering the host.

The festivities are starting a little earlier this year than last, out of respect for those who may or may not have earlier bedtimes. Come dressed in your finest, it’s a yearly tradition now!




Just as there was last year, there is to be an ‘after party’. If your character is part of the standard Orgy Invite Crew, they will have received another invitation to that half of the evening as well. Just like last year, this part of the event is to be handwaved, for obvious reasons.

Comments

[sagramore]

"Has that much time passed already?" Sagramore demands. "More than two years? Hanguang-jun!"

[lightbearinglord]

"You asked prior to our second anniversary. Our third is in a matter of weeks."

[sagramore]

"Oh! Right. All right. No, we can turn it around by then, I'm certain. I'll talk to Claudius tonight. I won't forget."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji already knows that Sagramore may easily forget, but he doesn't say so or object. When this celebration comes around, if it ever does, he will be glad for it -- his marriage has taken on a different weight and meaning here, and he is grateful. But he doesn't need it, either. "Thank you," he says, that almost-smile making another ephemeral appearance.

[sagramore]

"Thank you for keeping me company." He sighs and drops his head back, looking up at the ceiling. "I think it doesn't bother me at all, and then I want to go home, and then I feel like the world's worst nuisance."

[lightbearinglord]

It takes a moment for Lan Wangji to understand, but then he does, he thinks, understand. "The drinking?"

[sagramore]

"Mn." It's playful, but he sighs again.

[lightbearinglord]

"You are not yet accustomed to remaining sober in the company of drunk people."

[sagramore]

"I'm not, and it's so different from drinking. Everything feels different." He shakes his head. "Everyone looks as if they're having such a good time, and I'm just-- watching from the outside."

[lightbearinglord]

This strikes Lan Wangji with enough resonance that he turns to look at Sagramore, his expression a little more sharply assessing. "I have felt that way for much of my life."

[sagramore]

"What makes it bearable?"

[lightbearinglord]

Perhaps their isolation is not comparable, because Lan Wangji has never been a drinker, and because he has always, up until very recently, felt that barrier between himself and most social gatherings. But there is a chance that what he has to say will be useful, and he knows Sagramore will indulge him kindly if it is not. "When I was younger, I bore it by habit. I had never been on the inside. It failed to tempt me."

[sagramore]

Because Sagramore loves Lan Wangji, and would readily consider him a dear friend, he takes this in the spirit that it's meant, without feeling any twinge of frustration at how easily Lan Wangji says it failed to tempt me; instead, he listens, sipping his soda water and lime.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji glances away for a moment, watching as the people around them laugh and fill their glasses. He never wanted that, because he never knew he could want it. It isn't the drinking he wants these days, for which he is grateful now that he understands how persistently it troubles Sagramore. "Now it is more tempting, because I am not entirely alone. But the people who have lifted my solitude like my company whether I drink or not."

[sagramore]

"So you just-- you know it doesn't matter, and you can hold to that."

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn. But I think it must be easier to accept when I have lived most of my life apart. You are asking yourself to endure a more substantial change."

[sagramore]

Sagramore sighs. "Most of the time it's not so bad. Why do I need to drink, when it's just me at home? Laertes has cut back too, I'm not so tempted. But when I'm doing something like this -- I feel as if I stand out, and I want what everyone else has."