etrayalogs | [open] t-t-t-taking over, teenage rebellion!

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[open] t-t-t-taking over, teenage rebellion!

WHO: Adaine Abernant (

furiousfists), Fabian Seacaster (

maximumlegend), and YOU!
WHEN: June 3rd
WHERE: Apartment building's rec room
WHAT: Joint birthday party!
NOTES\WARNINGS: Underage drinking

It's only thanks to Aurora's message that Adaine has any idea what day it is. She looks at the text on her earpiece's readout and blinks, comprehension coming to her slowly.

Today is June 3rd, of the year 40██.

June 3rd...

June 3rd??

"Holy shit, it's my birthday!"

Adaine's birthdays haven't been much to shake a stick at, historically speaking. It's only in the past year, after she stopped living with her parents and moved in with Jawbone in Mordred Manor that anyone ever gave a crap or tried to give her anything for it. If it hadn't been for Jawbone, she might've been perfectly happy to let another year pass without fanfare. But now? She wants to at least acknowledge it. She'd be happy with just a slice of cake at the diner, but there's one thing that makes her think that perhaps that won't cut it.

If today is June 3rd, Adaine's birthday, then that means a few days ago it was May 31st. Fabian's birthday. And Fabian Seacaster is not one to let a birthday celebration be anything but maximum legend.

And, so it is that the two birthday Bad Kids set about throwing as raucous of a birthday bash as they can manage with such short lead time. The rec room in the bottom floor of the apartment building is decorated to the nines with balloons and streamers, with snacks, sodas, and even some alcohol to make mixed drinks set out on a table for all to enjoy. Anyone who the pair have spoken with is invited, but if anyone makes any comments about teenagers drinking alcohol, they're labeled a buzzkill and told to vacate the premises. Adaine manages to find a boombox somewhere with a CD, and plays some generic party music for people to dance to, should they feel so inclined.

All in all, it is a night of revelry, the likes of which Etraya has likely never seen before.

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Adaine said the exact same thing!

[ Riz punches Fabian's shoulder, ears pressed flatter against his head in pleasure as he takes in his friend marveling at a bunch of fabric, as though it's not made up of worse material than his bedsheets back home. Riz had been a little worried about that. Of the Bad Kids, his skill is deductive, not creative. The others would have been better equipped to make something out of nothing -- a song from Fig, some tinkered creation from Gorgug, Kristen's infamous friendship bracelets. But Riz is just Riz, and so he had to make do with his own limited skillset when it came to arts and crafts.

But Fabian likes it anyway, just like Adaine liked hers, as though she didn't even notice crooked bit of hem, the frayed corner, the human-made fabric. He grins. ]

You guys have some pretty low expectations for a couple of rich kids. Of course I had to! It's your birthday!

[ Your friends giving you presents on your birthday, as Riz understands it, is the bare minimum. ]

I'm not sure if it'll really work as a battle sheet? It's the nicest fabric I could find, but uh, eighty-thousand thread count, it ain't. [ Is that what most dance bards use? Riz couldn't say. He's never paid attention to dance bards before Fabian. ] But I figured -- you can still dance with it? So.

[ Riz had been relieved to find out that Fabian kept the dancing up, even well into their Junior Year. For all that he didn't get dancing, he liked watching Fabian dance; he looked so much freer and happier than he did before, and a part of Riz had been concerned that he'd shed it out of embarrassment once they returned to Elmville and he had to go around sharing it with more than just his closest friends.

But lo and behold, he's still dancing. It'd be a shame for that to change now that they're here. ]

Hey, we can always try it out and see!

[ There doesn't seem to be any real shame in the way he says it. Not about the dancing itself - but Riz already noticed that - and neither about using this particular battle sheet, rather than the perfectly crafted elven one he had before. Sure, the latter is probably more effective, but.. there's definitely some sentimental value in knowing that Riz made this by hand. Maybe not as elegantly as the elves, but Fabian certainly feels closer to Riz, especially in this moment.

Maybe it helps? Who knows. Despite his frequent use of his sheet, it's not like Fabian is an expert just yet. It hasn't even been a full year yet since he started using one.

For now Fabian moves the sheet around to just drape it over his shoulders. It kind of looks like he's wearing a blanket at a party where he's supposed to be proving how cool and popular he is, but it seems like Fabian's ego can take it. Or maybe he's just still way too caught up in the sentimentality of friendship to really consider that. (Yet.) ]

So how about you, huh? Are you having fun at the party? Surely you've been meeting some new people here!

Yeah! Let's do that later!

[ Riz absolutely beams as Fabian wraps the blanket around his shoulders, like a little kid wearing cape to run around the house in instead of a teen throwing a barn-raiser of a party. He silently congratulates himself on the great gift. He did it. He got a good grade in friendship. At this point, he could probably ditch the party itself and go back to their place quite happily, knowing that he's properly fulfilled Operation: Give Fabian and Adaine An At Least Okay Birthday Despite Being Held Hostage By Robots. ]

Oh, you know. It's a cool party! [ Riz has spent the bulk of the time sitting on the couch by himself while he waited for the birthday elves to be freed up for present time while he fiddled with the CD player to make himself look like he was good and busy. He can't socialize. He has a job. The job is occasionally skipping a really bad jock jam.

He pivots. ] I can't believe how many people you've already met! I've only met, like, the one guy I'd probably invite to a thing. Did you meet all these people in the maze?

[ Riz isn't sure how people meet other people outside of firmly structured formats. You meet people at school, or... you meet people... at school. That's about the breadth of his experience. ]

[ Look, Fabian is just so cool that he can make this cape thing work, okay. Or at least-- that's what he figures, standing there with it still hanging over his shoulders. At least he's looking.. confident about it? That's got to count for something, right. ]

Yeah!

[ Another confidence thing. Fabian says it so easily, like it's just natural. ]

Or most of them, anyway. Some of them I only met at that coffee date thing that was going on after we got out of the maze. I was thinking about asking Adaine about what friends she made here so I could invite them specifically, but.. I didn't want to ruin the surprise for her, and I figured that if I just invited everyone I got to know over the past month, some of her friends were bound to be among that group too, right?

[ That might actually just be true. Considering it kind of seems like literally half the population of this weird place is here at the party right now.

In fact, the confidence doesn't move into any sort of tone that's more akin to surprised or confused until he asks: ]

What do you mean though, you've only met one guy?

[ Sure, Riz isn't him. But in Fabian's overly social world he figures even Riz must have met at least more than one person here he's on friendly terms with! If he could become friends with Fabian, then he could become friends with anyone, right? ]

She said she knows Mal and Asuka, so you're not too far off there.

[ Riz had asked her, of course. They're the most unlikely of the Bad Kids to make new friends - not out of any fundamental unlikeability; Adaine has always been incredibly easy to love, but is more likely to be found with her nose in a book than making new friends - and he'd known most of the people here were Fabian's. It's quite possible that Fabian had only spoken to the others here as much as Riz had, but where Riz is inclined to simply quiz people about their own worlds, Fabian is charming, personable, charismatic, confident. It makes sense he makes the sort of friend to invite to a party instead of just adding people to a spreadsheet.

(Kalina had asked Riz once if he liked Penny more as a mystery than as a person. She hadn't been entirely wrong.) ]

And I didn't say I've only met one guy. There's just a difference between meeting someone in a maze and, like, inviting them to a party? The only guy I've talked to more, um, personably? Was Krouse. He's pretty cool. But other than him, I've at least met--

[ He scans the room. ]

Mal, I met the first day we showed up. Asuka in the maze, not a great first impression. And Aerith while I was investigating that abandoned Church. We're just not all friends yet, like you are.

[ The way the guy just blinks at Riz may imply that he did not realise there was supposed to be a difference between meeting someone in a maze and inviting them to a party. Genuinely so.

But rather than commenting on that, he can't help but fixate on the last thing Riz says. ]

Why not?

[ Yes, Fabian did spend about a year utterly denying any sign of friendship with Riz. But that was different! Riz was different! He was different! It was a different time, okay, and even though Fabian may be projecting his current time's Riz a little bit too much on the one right next to him here, he likes to think Riz has come at least a little bit cooler since freshman year.

Even if that's a very low bar to pass. ]

Surely you had friendly interactions with them. Then why not be friends with them?

[ Apparently it's that easy to him. But it might definitely explain something about the sheer amount of people here - or rather, about the sheer amount of invitations Fabian sent out. ]

Because that's -- not how it works?

[ Riz isn't certain, exactly, how it works. Ayda's frustration over the opaque nature of friendship had been deeply relatable to him, in fact. It would be so much easier if you could go up to people and just ask them directly if you're friends, and if not, if you'd like to be friends. But unlike Fabian Aramais Seacaster, home schooled on the high seas, Riz had gone through an ordinary middle school experience and is distinctly aware that not only is that not workable, but that people will act like your friends while secretly making fun of you because acting nice is the joke in and of itself and then you'll catch on when one of them asks you to the school dance and then you know that they're fucking with you and the Briefcase Kid thing wasn't like a cool, fun nickname that you guys shared and you may have a non-zero chance of being thrown into the garbage when you attempt to point out that this is textbook bullying, especially when you start actually quoting the anti-bullying pamphlets, which was in retrospect a bad idea.

Which is fine now, obviously, because this time when people call him The Ball, they actually mean it as a fun nickname, and everyone in high school is absolutely over their middle school years, just like all adults are over high school. It's just, like, evidence on the Theories Of Friend-making, the thesis statement of which is: It's Really Hard, Actually.

Less hard when you're a hot, cool, rich half-elf who calls his mother mah-mawwwwww, apparently. ]

You gotta, like, level up first.

[ First, you buy them matching friendship necklaces... ]

You know, get them off guard. Get them comfortable. Then wham, hit 'em with the old friendship one-two! I'll get there!

[ ...

Fabian's attention is fully turned away from the party at large now - and instead fully turned towards Riz, staring at the goblin with his one eye. ]

Wait, why are you saying that like it's supposed to be some sort of plan?

[ Sure, Fabian came to the first day of school with a plan.. but that wasn't meant to make friends, okay! He wanted to punch the toughest guy around so everyone would know he's cool! It's different! ]

Was all that stuff from freshman year you trying to hit me with the "one-two"? [ Look, yes, he knows Riz was desperately trying to befriend him, but Fabian didn't think it was a plan! He thought it was just Riz being a dweeb back then!! ]

Okay, don't say it like that. You're making it sound nefarious, or something. That's what the business cards were for! And they worked! [ He holds up one hand, fingers wiggling. ][ He's being a little intentionally obtuse. The business cards were for making friends, yes, but he also knows that that's not really how they got to be friends. Quite the opposite; there's a reason why he ditched the whole idea of giving anyone other than business associates his business cards in Sophomore Year, aside from feeling pretty damn content with the friends he already has.

He's also completely ignoring the very apparent (and very embarrassing) fact that he had been... a little fixated on Fabian in particular. He'd just thought he was so cool. He really, really, really wanted Fabian to think he was cool too, and for them to be friends, and he's not altogether certain why. It's not because he's rich or strong or whatever. He just seemed awesome. And he is awesome. So his judgment was right, even if his execution was a little off. ]

You did it on your first day too. By punching Gorgug? You had a plan, and you carried it out. Same thing.

[ Let that haunt you, Fabian. Riz regards the two of you as being the same. Sit with that. ]

[ He would protest that it totally is nefarious, and that's why he's making it sound that way.

But apparently Riz is hitting him with the old one-two right now, because Fabian is instantly distracted by that outright offensive comparison Riz is making here. ]

What?!

[ There we go. He instantly even sounds offended. Mostly because that moment was a little embarrassing in hindsight, so just having it brought up like this is embarrassing enough by itself, let alone it being compared to what Riz was apparently doing. ]

That wasn't like that at all! I wasn't looking to make friends! [ .. how did he arrive at a point where he has to defend Past Fabian's actions when he clearly is no longer that guy?

But-- screw it. If it's the one way to keep his pride, he will! He will dig his own grave and he'll like it! ]

I wanted to show everyone that I was the toughest guy at school, and Gorgug was the biggest guy around! Who else was I supposed to punch?!

Your guess wasn't wrong. Gorgug is the toughest guy at school. It's just, nobody knew that for certain yet.

[ Riz has superlatives in his head for all of his friends, who he fully believes are the best people in Aguefort, and refuses to get to know anyone else well enough to let them threaten those claims. Fig is the most rebellious, Gorgug's the strongest (and the sweetest), Fabian's the coolest, Adaine's the smartest, and Kristen is...

Kristen is a growing concern, honestly. ]

Prove you're the toughest guy at school so they'll let you join the Owlbears, at which point you'll make friends with all of the other tough guys, right? At the end of the day, it's the same result. And you have a bunch of tough guy friends now!

[ The Owlbears team likes Fabian. Everyone likes Fabian. Faulty premise, successful execution, if you ask Riz. ]

This is -- don't look so offended, this is a good thing!

[ Being told that by Riz is, perhaps, of little consolation. Sorry, Fabian. Your having a plan lumps you in with this guy now. ]

I am offended!

[ It didn't even take him a moment, huh.. Fabian didn't even pause between Riz's last word and his own first word there. That's how offended he is. Instinctively so.

It's not even that he'd mind being compared to Riz in certain departments - though the other would definitely outdo him in quite a few of them - but this one? No way. Please don't question his social capabilities, he worked real hard for those, dude!! ]

You are making it sound like it was all-- all calculated!

[ Which feels weird.

Fabian isn't sure why. There's just some part of him that instinctively really dislikes that idea. (It's the part of him that genuinely - and desperately - wants people to like him for who he is, even though he knows they won't.)

At least it definitely just seems like Fabian's usual dramatics, especially with the sweeping hand gestures he's making as he talks. ]

In my case it's just natural charisma, The Ball! Natural charisma! You know I got that!

Of course I know that, [ Riz says, his tone all but saying, well, duh. ] That's, like, your whole thing. You're charismatic as hell.

[ Never have it be said that Riz Gukgak doesn't gas his friends up when accurate and appropriate. Also, it's Fabian's birthday. He's not going out of his way to offend Fabian on his birthday -- frankly, he's a little surprised that the guy has taken such offense to this. Having plans to make friends is cool! It means that you're very dedicated to the idea of friends. Which is a very cool trait. Probably.

He shifts, sitting cross-legged, the curl of his lip betraying that he thinks this is all a little funny. ]

Having a plan just gets your foot in the door so people can see your natural charms! [ That had been Riz's plan, except -- well, he doesn't have a lot in the way of natural charms. In fact, he has come to discover that a lot of people actually like him less the more they got to know him. Which is fine, on account of the aforementioned fact that his own friendship gambit had worked and he now has five friends, which is basically all the friends one person could ever need. ]

But if you say it wasn't a plan, then it wasn't a plan, [ he says with a shrug. ] I'm just saying, there's nothing wrong with it.

[ There's so much wrong with it.

In fact, it's saying so much that Riz doesn't see what's wrong with it-- but then again, that's what makes him Riz, doesn't it. Of course he wouldn't think it's weird to have a plan for friendship. Like you're planning out your career as part of some personal development Jawbone may make you do as the school counselor and all.

The fight leaves Fabian a little, but the idea that this is ridiculous sure doesn't. He lets out a sheer dramatic sigh as he slumps forward a little. ]

So you wouldn't think it's weird if Kristen came up to you and told you that she had a plan all along to befriend you.

[ Sorry, Kristen. Throwing you under the metaphorical bus here. She's mostly the best example because she can be so unpredictable, to a point where a statement like that almost sounds normal, and--

Well, he certainly isn't going to use himself. What if Riz does think Fabian is also a proponent of the whole friendship plan idea. It'd be insane. No thanks! ]

[ Riz stops to consider this. ]

I think she did have a plan all along to befriend us! That's what that whole Bible study thing was about, remember? I mean, yeah, she was trying to convert us a little, but I'm pretty sure that was also because it's the only way she knew how to make friends.

[ He looks, unfortunately, very cheerful about this prospect. ]

And if she had a plan to befriend me, that would mean she wanted to be friends with me. That's a win.

[ Sorry, Fabian. He's not getting it. But he is getting the picture that Fabian doesn't like it, so he nods sagely. ] Just forget I mentioned it.

[ That's how this works, right!!!! ]

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[open] t-t-t-taking over, teenage rebellion!

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