it's the solstice

[arclightning]

Who: Mako, Wu, & close CR
What: They might be in a different world, but the solstice is the solstice, and that means it's time to feed everyone you care about, if you're Mako
When: Night of December 21st
Where: Mako and Wu's loft above the Raccoon Room

Content warnings: Sadness from potential memory-share stuff, homesickness, mentions of Mako and Bo's dead parents

© TESSISAMESS

If you have close CR with Mako or Wu, in the days leading up to the Winter Solstice—December 21st—you may have gotten a small text invite in your inbox. A few simple lines inviting you to the Raccoon Room on the night of the 21st for dinner "because it's the solstice." Normally the Raccoon Room is closed early in the week, but on the 21st they've opened it up.

They're actually having people over in the loft above the Raccoon Room, and their living space is decked out in lanterns and candles to keep out the long darkness. Snow falls quietly outside, but in here it's warm and it smells like ginger and pepper. Wu's put on a few scratchy records in the background. Here and there, Winter Mournings are hung, not quite out of reach. It's very easy to accidentally or purposefully touch one.

If anyone comes in early enough, Mako is still at the counter with his sleeves rolled up, rolling dumplings, covered in rice flour. Maybe help him cook? He's looking better than he was early in the month: his skin is the correct pallor without that odd gray cast, and there's no smoke rolling off his body, so that... has to be good!

For the later arrivals, Mako's made dinner, which means hot tangyuan in gingery broth, an entire bowl of mushroom noodles for sharing, and a simmering pot of broth for people to cook things in, as well as a lot of a tangy sauce that Mako gets kind of cagey about when people try. Sit down, enjoy some hot pot! It's a time to be together, after all.

[ ooc: tag around, top-level, have a good time! ]

Comments

Mako // various points throughout the night

[arclightning]

1. memshare // other people's memories

[ Mako does his best not to touch the Winter Mournings, but he put the things up and still manages to touch them every now and then as he's moving around his own apartment.

No matter whose memory he ends up in he lets out a quiet sigh as soon as he sees what's happening and crosses his arms, frowning hard. ]

Not this again. This yours?

2. dinner // traditions

[ During dinner—multi-layered thing that it is—Mako looks up in the middle of swirling some hearty green vegetable in the simmering pot of broth and makes eye-contact with whoever is across from him. It's a weird thing, to be sharing this tradition with a bunch of people for whom it doesn't mean the same thing, but... maybe that's okay. Maybe the first part of sharing a tradition is getting people to buy in.

So, he sucks in a small breath, looking relaxed for once, and asks, quietly, ]

This is supposed to be about your family. The solstice. Who, uh... who else would you want here? If you could have them? Anyone from home?

3. general // tag him from the prompts in the header!

ota

[siriusly]

Good to see those sconces he installed are still holding up... This place really came together since last he was in here! Which was...a while ago, given Manabu's apparent allergy to fun. The little dog omen who flanked him on the way in has now struck out to do all the sniffing and schmoozing Manabu won't do himself, so kindly give Magnet some attention, yes? Meanwhile Manabu will be just scanning around owlishly at the decor...and the spread.

"Eh? Wait..." He squints. "Which...one of these is pizza? These look more like rolls..." But Wu did say it was bread-based.

OTA

[laminae]

[Fern has never celebrated the solstice before. He wasn't even sure what the solstice was until he had asked Varian. Normally, he's be excited to hang out with friends and enjoy one of their traditions, but tonight....

Tonight he happens to be dragging Varian to this evening more out of desperation than anything good. He's worried about his boyfriend's growing corruption, and he's hoping that spending time with friends eating good food will do something to help the situation.

He can be found up in the loft, nervously hovering in Varian's vicinity the whole night. Right now he's absently poking at one of the lanterns, and eyeing some candles on a shelf near him, occasionally glancing in Varian's direction, hoping to see some kind of improvement in him.]