Mingle Log: Mizuki's Birthday Party

[mooninthewater]

Who: The whole Grove!
What: Birthday Party Mingle
When: March 22
Where: The Therapy Building
Warnings: Drugs (weed specifically)

Happy Birthday Mizuki!

It's cut out in letters that Mizuki probably did himself. He knows that these sort of parties are usually done by other people for the birthday haver, but Mizuki wants a party. Not just for him, but just in general. There's been so much happening lately and people seem so much worse for wear, it's depressing. They have every right to be upset, of course, but Mizuki thinks it's about time to do something that'll put a smile on people's face.

So what's better than a party? One with little balloons with too many strings so they look like jellyfish, and games. So, so many games. Board games, party games, video games — the works. He's even got a table with very questionable looking (but, if you're willing to brave how very gross it looks and eat it, very delicious) food on it. Oh, and the pot brownies. Those are there, too. Next to the food are an assortment of handmade party hats covered in stickers.

One of the party games is a deck of cards with ice breaker questions written on them, and everyone's being given a handful as they walk in. Some of them completely normal and others… maybe less normal.

There's also music playing! From Mizuki's phone, so it sits by the video game consoles and such. It's all personal playlists of his, so a lot of it is video game music, but you can probably fiddle with it to change the playlist if you're looking for something fun to dance to.

Mizuki wants everyone to have a good time, and he lets everyone know about the event personally. One by one! He invites you tonight around dinner to come to the therapy building to celebrate his birthday. You don't wanna leave the little guy hanging, do you?

Comments

[simplicitas]

[It's Elsword's first public appearance in 2 weeks everyone clap—

He will not miss Mizuki's birthday, so he's here. Still depressed! But not in his room, which is a good start. He will be around doing things, such as:]

A)

[Answering weird icebreaker questions, holding his card up at you and waving it around like you didn't also get one and don't know what he's saying when he asks:]

"Which arm rest is yours in the movie theater?" ...What's a movie theatre?

[please help they don't have these on elrios.]

B)

[Party games! The most important being sitting there with a party hat wedged upside-down into his halo between the ring and the diamond shape inside of it, holding one out to you as you pass, and saying:]

Do you wanna see how many party hats you can stack in my halo?

[Or maybe you'll catch him playing one of Mizuki's consoles and won't have to deal with the party hat thing, and instead get offered a controller to join in on knockoff Don't Starve Together. Fun! A little too realistic to the Grove, but hey, it's a party, let's not think about the horrors.]

[mooninthewater]

You know those games where it's like 90% cutscenes and occasionally I gain control to walk around or make choices. [ Think: Most Telltale games, most Quantic Dream games, most Supermassive Games— ] If you take out the parts where I control the main character and it's just cutscenes — that's a movie.

A movie theatre is a place where you go to watch it in this real big screen. Like, they're usually 90 feet wide. And there's a bunch of seats where people go to watch it together.

[simplicitas]

Oh, okay. That sounds cool. So then, I'm assuming the chairs have armrests and they're shared, like a messed-up park bench?

[Hm hm hmmm...]

I think the answer is they should install more armrests.

[sesa]

[Sesa is not just at Mizuki's party. He is, like, probably one of the first if not THE first person here. He probably helped decorate if Mizuki didn't end up doing it all by himself first, honestly. And of course since it's Sesa...you will not be avoiding him. He has spotted you across the room and is approaching you rapidly.]

A)

[He has one of those conversation cards in hand (he's quite confident in his ability to come up with topics himself, but why not indulge in having them picked for him?), so he'll be using it to ask:]

If the number 2 pencil is the most popular, why is it number 2? Haha, an excellent question!

[How long before one of the nerds in the room Gets Him.]

B)

[When he isn't utterly beefing it at properly socializing, Sesa is playing games, of course. He is in his Fucking Element, so if you really want to get into it with him, come find the Vouivre while he's sitting at his kotatsu that he dragged over for use at the party.]

Oh hello! You're just in time to join me for this round of Mario Kart! Come on, don't be shy...unless you are afraid you might lose?

A) i'm sorry sesa

[succiduous]

[Gnosis isn't even the person Sesa walked up to, but he hears this while he's grabbing pot brownies (Gnosis no) and he immediately veers over to Sesa with his plate because the Urge To Mansplain is Strong.]

It isn't based in popularity. It's based on the hardness of the graphite — the scale ranks from one to four, with two being a happy medium between "too soft" and "too hard". If you were to purchase a pack of graphite pencils meant for artists, each one has a certain number associated with it, which tells the artist in question how hard the graphite is at a glance. Number 2 being the most popular is solely because the mark it leaves is dark enough to be easily read, but light enough to be erased, especially in the case of academia.

[i hate gnosis edelweiss]

CRIES help I love him

[sesa]

[Sesa just sort of stands there and lets Gnosis mansplain pencils to him. He knows nothing about graphite or its hardness, so this is honestly all Greek to him.]

Well, I can see why they are so popular, then!

[...]

Though, I can also see why some might mistake the "2" as being the 2nd most popular pencil you could buy, and get confused.

[Only non-artists might be confused by this.

Or people who are Sesa.]

[succiduous]

...

No. No one thinks that the number 2 pencil is the second most popular. That's just you.

[sesa]

[...]

Are you sure? I mean...I'm certain there must be SOME people out there who do not even use number 2 pencils. They might use number 1 pencils! Or number 3!

[succiduous]

Yes. Those are called artists.

B

[purevanillacookie]

Oh? What is Mario Kart?

[ He'll slowly settle himself down beside the other, careful not to whack him with anything, then set the staff down as well so he can... look at the screen - which is a television he has heard and it's like the diagnostic consoles at home! - at the game on it. ]

[sesa]

Pure Vanilla! My friend, you are in for a treat.

[He keeps his hands in his lap with both of them gently clutching the controller, gesturing towards the TV with it.]

You recall the race we were forced to participate in earlier this month? Well, this game is like that, except you race in karts instead of as animals. The first person to make it a certain amount of laps around a course wins! Sounds simple enough, yes?

[He moves on to the character select screen, then offers Pure Vanilla the controller.]

Would you like to try? I can teach you what the controls do.

[purevanillacookie]

[ Peepaw watches with interest and curiosity as Sesa explains and then hands him the controller.

Tail goes pblblblb. ]

Oh, yes!

[ Sesa, you are about to watch a Grandpa attempt Games. This begins with trying to move things via moving the controller itself, Pure Vanilla's expression curious as nothing happens, before he shows the controller to the Staff to get a better look at it. Ah, buttons and levers? He begins to just press and move things to figure it out, staring at the controller rather than the screen. ]

[sesa]

[Is there anything more endearing than watching a Grandpa Game? Sesa doesn't think so.

He will watch with a soft smile as he figures out the controller, gently placing a hand on Pure Vanilla's shoulder.]

Use the control stick to move the cursor around. The buttons are for selection- it will tell you on the screen what button to use to either make your choice or to go back. You will need to look at the screen for that, of course...

[purevanillacookie]

[ The hand on his shoulder makes him pause, and he listens to the explanation, oh!ing softly. He memorizes where the buttons on, then turns his attention to the screen so he can move the cursor around.

He looks pleased as punch when it works. For a moment he's simply silent as he meticulously goes through every option, looking as serious as if he was designing a new Wafflebot, before tilting his head thoughtfully. ]

Does it matter what I pick?

[mooninthewater]

[ For when Mizuki isn't making sure everyone is doing okay, or hanging off of Elsword, you'll find him in various places around the party. ]

I. The Legally Distinct Just Dance Option

[ Yes, Mizuki has set up a Just Dance session in the middle of his birthday party. Yes, he's going to subject everyone to some K-Pop. Yes, Korean technically doesn't exist in Arknights but suspend your disbelief there a little bit, because the little guy has the whole chorography for all of these dances seemingly memorized.

It looks like it's quite the work out, but Mizuki's not really breaking a sweat. Aegir aren't real, probably. ]

II. Questions?

[ Mizuki doesn't have any cards, but he's more than happy to strike up some conversation with you. He's the birthday boy, after all! He wants to talk to everyone. ]

What action would you consider makes a person "irredeemably evil"?

[ Cool. Very chill vibes for the birthday, I guess. It's fine, maybe you're one of the few he asks the alternative question to! ]

Someone you know has the capability to be a good person. You know you can get through to them. However, you also know you cannot get through to them in time for them to do something you consider completely abhorrent. The only way of stopping them is kill them. What do you do?

[ Hey, Mizuki, what the fuck— ]

III. Wildcard

Or just catch the boy mingling. Idk, hmu, y'all—

iii we're teaching gnosis video games

[succiduous]

[You know how months ago we joked that Gnosis would get addicted to Baba Is You? Yeah. Anyway—]

It's a puzzle game, [Gnosis echoes what I'm assuming is Mizuki's explanation,] and my goal is to get to the door. It seems simple enough.

[He says, just past the tutorial stage, so like lol. Lmao, even.]

You want me to play games for your birthday?

h*ck yeah

[mooninthewater]

[ Now I wanna play Baba Is You, what is this- ]

The door... or the flag, or the key, or sometimes even Baba! It's a game where you have to sort of think about reality a little differently.

And yeah! I like seeing how people come up with solutions to things. It's fascinating.

[succiduous]

I feel as though you'll be bored in fifteen minutes.

[...this is factually untrue, because Gnosis essentially blows through the first chunk of levels, and then when he's faced with ones that make him actually think? He starts sitting up straighter and muttering his thoughts out loud. "If I make the boulders pushable..." and stuff like that.

Sorry Mizuki he's in the sauce.]

III - present

[purevanillacookie]

[ Upon learning the party is for Muziki's birthday, Peepaw will arrive a little late because he had to get something from the trader, then spend a bit of time magicking it together and making sure it's ready to attune to the proper user, then carefully wrapping it in what paper he can.

When he arrives, it won't be hard to seek the Jellyfish out and offer him a soft warm Peepaw loves you hug, and then plunk the gift into his hands. The thing is as long as he is, if not slightly taller. ]

Happy birthday, Mizuki! I hope this gift is useful for you.

[ And upon unwrapping it's a staff. A simple thing made of wood and a moonstone on top, to help Mizuki channel his new healing magic. ]

[winterfrosting]

[So Cacao is still meeting everyone and getting adjusted, and normally he would not make an appearance at a party. In fact, his plan was not to. But the population of the Grove is small, and everyone in one place would be the perfect time for an attack.

...so he spends most of the party outside patrolling and standing guard at the door. Eventually someone, probably Pure Vanilla, herds him inside to at LEAST eat something. The food looks... honestly awful, even for his modest sensibilities. So he ends up with a brownie and....

...

Ah. At some point he can be found in a chair, head dipping down to his chest in a weed induced grandpa nap that he keeps startling awake from with a grumble and glare]

[purevanillacookie]

[ Oh. Well.

The sight of Dark Cacao nodding off in such a defenseless and easy to attack manner, in amongst people he truly doesn't know, takes Pure Vanilla by so much surprise he can only stand there and stare across the room like he's looking at something out of Fairy Tale.

Then he will clean his staff's eye with his robe cause clearly, haha, something is not right here. Look again. Nope, that sure is a dozing Dark Cacao. Oh, he awoke and now he's glaring around.

It makes him laugh. He can't help it.

A few steps and he's beside the grumbling man, smiling cheerfully from ear to ear. ]

Is everything all right, Dark Cacao?

[winterfrosting]

Pure... Vanilla Cookie-

[He stares at him for a moment, like he intended to say more then just... didn't. Yes sir, that is Vanilla, got it in one!]

[purevanillacookie]

... Yes?

[ Okay that's mildly concerning. Drifting off he can understand - they're old leave them be - but. He gently lays a hand on the others forehead, checking for fever. ]

Are you well?

[winterfrosting]

Mmhm. I am fine.

...

I may have had some fireade?

[He looks down at his hands. No, no he only ate, not drank. Huh]

[lil gift dropoff i will try to do something proper later]

[amethystic]

( mizuki will, at some point, find a rather small black box tied with purple lace in a rose-like bow just. in his hands. it smells like something sweet? inside is a small box of candy. they have different fillings, ranging from fruits, jellys, nuts, nougats and floral creams! and then there's also two charms.


the culprit is probably obvious, but she's still nervous in groups so she'll arrive properly later. promise. )