margarita mixer mingle mlog

[itselbitch]

characters: eliot waugh, and YOU
location: the invincible, bar area
date/time: sept 26, what constitutes eliot's evening, but whatever time it would be for everyone else
content: eliot has way too much tequila and wants to share some of his delicious extra añejo gold with all of you. with a little friendly negotiation, he's taken over the bar and is mixing up drinks for anyone who shows up. kid friendly options available. also there is homemade chips, queso, salsa, and even pan de muertos because eliot's an overachiever. buen provecho!

also there's probably going to be a lime shortage after this until the next ship arrives.
warnings: alcohol, probably some language




Wait, is this a. Party? At The Invincible? Who? What? Why?

Unfortunately, there is no announcement. There aren't even any invitations. It all seems to get set up in the span of minutes, and now there's clearly some sort of fiesta going on. That's all to plan though. See, as an experienced party thrower, Eliot knows no one's actually invited to a good party. The right people just show up, and the rest is history.

So come on over! Have a seat! The smell of fresh food and lime beckons!


THE BAR

Eliot's stationed behind the bar counter, waiting to mix on order whatever you request. Obviously the special today is margaritas, and he's highly recommending it, especially since he's using the good stuff that Beacon seems to have no idea exists, but if you really want to order something else, he'll comply. You filthy heathen.

There are also spirits helping him serve up drinks, but even though he taught them how to make a proper marg, it seems like they're not at all as good at mixing as Eliot is.

Along the bar are various, colorful bowls filled with homemade chips that Eliot whipped up earlier in the day. The bowls are even charmed to keep the chips toasty for so that you don't have to worry about a sad, cold chip! Dipping options include a few varieties of salsa, a refreshing guacamole blend, and a hearty queso.

SEATING AREA

The entire area is decorated in colorful streamers and paper crafts, reminscent of a Mexican festival. Some of the tables have paper-craft skulls colored to look like sugar skulls and there are even a few delicious loaves of pan de muertos waiting to be devoured. "But Eliot! It's not October yet!" No, it's not, but his margarita party is now! Enjoy it anyway!

Of course there are also tables here with chips and your choices of dip. Have at it! He can't possibly eat all these as leftovers, and Quentin doesn't need even more snacks in his diet.

There are some coloring sheets left out on a couple tables too, with markers and crayons available if anyone wants to color any. Eliot thought about using paper cutouts of sugar skulls as decorations before he figured out his paper-craft. While he decided against them, coloring them in might be entertaining for someone else.

Would you also like to make your own paper-craft skull? Well, then lucky you! There are also stencils traced onto paper and (safety) scissors for you to cut them out with. You'll find that they have a tab that slots into a slit to keep it all together without any tape. How fancy is that?

(( this is a mingle log! feel free to make you own top-levels and tag around! eliot is available at the bar for chatting and orders. ))

Comments

[evulsed]

[ They don't talk, not really. It doesn't matter that they'd both gone out to search for Sora, or that they'd been at one another's throats after the expedition to the Lighthouse— and it certainly doesn't matter that Riku had been there, however briefly, when Vanitas just started his haunting of the church.

If Vanitas could turn his own pain outward, he might take it upon himself to follow Riku around— the last tie to their world— just to make sure he could keep a finger on the pulse of what he's doing. But the fact is, the yawn in his chest has been so all consuming that Vanitas hasn't cared to do it.

He isn't expecting to see that slash of silver, sliding in next to him like he has every right to be there. Vanitas turns his eyes on him, derisively glancing at his empty glass before going back to his face. Who healed you. Vanitas still has the scar Elden left him, a broad sun with a pinched center in the middle of his chest. Sometimes it still aches. Vanitas isn't sure if that's just because it's a new scar, or because it had been light poured directly into his body. ]

Why? Planning on doing something else stupid?

[equinoctials]

[ They've only related because their lives orbited around one bright star: Sora. Without him, Vanitas and Riku both drift, unmoored by the hollow in their own ways. Riku could have done more to reach out.

He probably should have.

Being hurt is no excuse, not when Riku's been able to do so much in the weeks since Sora left Beacon. The problem was having an incentive that wasn't entangled with something negative. He needs something and that's not a great way to approach someone if he means to connect in some meaningful way. ]

Bet you'd love to see it if I was. Who healed you?

[evulsed]

Only if it makes you look like a fool.

[ He doesn't miss a beat, his retort immediately on the heels of Riku's words— but he holds out on giving him a proper answer. Instead, Vanitas puts another torn piece of confection into his mouth, chewing it slowly to feel the full effect of the melting sugar.

Really he has no reason to hide it. Vanitas isn't getting anything out of keeping it to himself, and it's not like that other kid doesn't go around offering himself up to help on the regular. He swallows, raises one hand to his mouth to lick sugar off his thumb, all the while staring Riku down like its some kind of contest.

Finally he looks away, to pick up another piece of bread. ]

Elden.

[equinoctials]

[ That's about what he expects, it's more in line with how these exchanges go. It started as an inkling, and now Riku's fairly sure this is how Vanitas socializes. By making everything a battle of some kind.

He admits to himself that he doesn't mind it as much as he should, but then... Riku's enjoyed a challenge, he's just always enjoyed them more when they came from or involved Sora.

Vanitas, regardless of the way he's a darker dead ringer for his best friend, couldn't be more different. They stare each other down until Vanitas looks away, and Riku's troubled gaze drops briefly, swallowing around the lingering taste of his drink. Elden? So that must have been what he meant... ]

Got it. Thanks.

[ He turns in his stool, scooping up a small straw, using it to siphon up a bit of the sweet dregs of his drink. ]

There is something. Won't need Elden for it, though.

[ As Riku speaks, he tips up the straw, one finger wedged up at one end, offering the tart-sweet liquid caught in the other end to the Unversed. ]

His light burns too brightly.

[evulsed]

Whatever.

[ Vanitas' lip curls but he doesn't look back at Riku. He gave him his answer, so he's expecting the lightbearer to take it and go. They have no reason to be around one another, after all. Vanitas isn't tied to him the way he'd been tied to Sora, that long thin thread that bound them, reeling Vanitas in despite the ways he tried so hard to hold the line. Riku is here to help bring the light back, just like everyone else, and Vanitas was never going to be able to do anything to help with that.

Darkness is where he belongs. If this world stayed how it was forever, he would survive just fine. The lady under the church could do it. Why not him?

But then the boy keeps talking, and Vanitas is forced to acknowledge him. Not just because the words he uses, the easy way they bait his attention, but because he clearly offers his drink to his Unversed.

The feeling that surges up through him is difficult to describe. Something like annoyance, or frustration, or embarrassment— sharp and connected to all three. His stupid replica had done this same thing, trying to feed his fledgling emotions like they wanted or needed anything like that. They were monsters, didn't these idiots understand that?

The creature tilts it's head, turning it's unblinking red eyes on the straw— but before it can do anything Vanitas' hand snaps out and he plucks the whole glass right out of Riku's hand. ]

I thought that's what you wanted.

[ He snarls, putting the glass out of the immediate reach of his Unversed. He slides the lime along the rim, collecting the sugar on the meat of the fruit. ]

That's all any of you ever talk about.

[equinoctials]

If you wanted one that badly, you could've asked the tall guy.

[ The tall guy at the bar making the drinks like it's performance art. The tall guy who has a name, but it was all Riku could do not to choke on air, let alone on his drink, the last time they spoke.

Remembering how Vanitas had taken to the sweets, he watches, with his interest a little too avid, as Vanitas gathers the white crystals clustered against the rim of his cup with that little wedge of lime, opting not to warn him that it's salt. ]

It's not all I want.

[ There's a lot of other outcomes that Riku desires, even more than the return of light to this world. It just so happens that they both miss one in common, and Riku wonders sometimes if Vanitas even knows what it is to miss someone, by name, or if it's just another ache inside. Like the one that drew him into the church to wait for... Gene, probably. ]

Concerns using the darkness for something. I'll even bet it's a use you haven't thought of.

[evulsed]

[ Vanitas snorts, and while it could probably be ascribed to either one of Riku's statements, it's definitely the latter. It's not what I want. That's probably the most ridiculous thing he's heard all day and he's already had to deal with Mary. ]

Sure, Riku.

[ The sarcasm his thick as he pulls the lime off the edge of the glass and puts the wedge in his mouth. The thing is: Vanitas has no idea what it is. He's never seen this fruit before, and he's certainly never had a cocktail in his hand— he just assumes that whatever Riku had been ingesting is probably safe for him, too, and so throws the usual caution he would use to the wind.

It doesn't work in his favor. The salt and the tart squirt of juice hits the inside of his mouth in all the wrong ways, crawling across his tastebuds and clinging to the sides of his tongue. His reaction is relatively dramatic, how he jerks his head back and pulls the lime from his mouth in the same movement— expression screwed up in the universal revulsion to sour. ]

Agh! That's disgusting!

[ He drops the lime on the counter and raises his arm to his mouth, using the bone of his wrist to wipe his tongue and lips free of the salt. The look he throws Riku is almost offended and definitely accusatory. ]

What's wrong with you, eating something like that?

[equinoctials]

[ It's not all he wants, that all being an important distinction to make. Besides the return of the light (presumably with the defeat of the World Eaters, if that's even possible), Riku would prefer a way to survive regardless of what other wild variables exist - for instance, the ability for a perhaps unstable and very lonely girl to wipe them all out.

It isn't every day that a prank lines itself up for you.

Vanitas doesn't hold anything back with his expressions, and his viscerally repulsed reaction to the sourness of the lime is writ large over his whole body, prompting a quirk up of the corners of Riku's mouth. ]

I didn't. You did.

[ He'd offer him a cup of water... if he was nearly anyone else. Besides, after what just happened with the lime, Vanitas would probably suspect some new and more awful experience lurks on that glass of innocuous clear liquid. ]

You'll live. If you're done being dramatic, I have a question.

[evulsed]

[ He sneers and pushes the glass away. If he still had the lime in his hand, he'd throw that at Riku too, just for the sake of it. On the stool, his Unversed bristles— or maybe it shivers?— and shakes itself out like a dog. It makes the lantern it's holding between it's long ears swinging, changing the angle of his dim, black light just briefly.

Vanitas turns his face against his shoulder and wipes his mouth there, too, before finally reaching for more of the sugary bread in the hope it'll chase some of that horrible flavour away. I didn't, like he hadn't just been drinking whatever had been in that cup. Vanitas doubts it would've been any better than what the decoration was.

He stuffs a big piece into his mouth. It doesn't mask the flavor, it makes a weird mix of lime and dough, but it's better than all the salt.

He has half a mind to just ignore whatever Riku has to say, after that little stunt, but his curiousity is piqued. Riku doesn't seek him out, so whatever this is, he must really be stuck if he's coming to Vanitas for it.

Either that or he's just here because Vanitas looks like Sora.

He doesn't speak, because he's eating, but he stares at Riku as he chews to make it blatant that he's at least paying attention. ]

[equinoctials]

[ He's right - Riku doesn't seek him out so much as swing by when he senses him because he just so happened to be in the area - they don't really have that many reasons to mingle. Vanitas sees another guardian of the light, Riku assumes. And Riku... he has his hands full already just trying to keep things moving in a somewhat productive direction.

And the last time they spoke this much? They were soon taking swings at each other.

Turning his head to look at the rest of the party, Riku doesn't speak again until he's certain he won't be overheard - unless someone's got some kind of super-hearing or whatever that he doesn't know about. (Which is a thing! But Matt isn't present, so.) ]

I've been working on a way to conceal our lanterns without extinguishing them. Darkness works, but I'm curious about something.

[ About possible side effects on the lantern's owner, mainly. Due to his... immunity, experimenting on his own lantern hasn't yielded any information. ]

Let me try hiding yours, you tell me if you feel anything. I'll owe you one. Deal?

[evulsed]

[ Vanitas laughs.

It's lucky he's already swallowed the bread in his mouth, otherwise he would've had a real threat of choking on it. ]

You want to cover me in Darkness?

[ It isn't exactly what Riku is saying, at least not in the vocabulary of the universe they come from— but their lanterns are an extension of them so really, is it that much of a stretch? What tickles him isn't the idea that Riku is postulating because really, it's clever. Cover the light with the dark, the easiest way to smother it's existence. Not to put it out, but to hide it. Vanitas understands that. He knows how much can hide in the shadows.

What's funny to him is that Riku is suggesting it at all. Physical, verbal proof of his willingness to use the Darkness.

However thrown he'd been by the little altercation with the drink completely evaporates. For a moment, Vanitas becomes as animated as he'd been before he started letting himself sink further and further into black apathy. His yellow eyes glitter. ]

And what do you think you're going to glean from that? Are you worried about tainting someone with it, so you're going to see if I'll notice?

What incentive do I have to tell you the truth, Riku?

[ He turns his body fully toward the other boy, putting one elbow on the counter, opening up his free hand. Something about the gesture suggests he's expecting Riku to place his proof right there in his palm. ]

You realize that's the sort of thing I thrive off of, right?

[equinoctials]

[ He laughs and Riku looks away from Vanitas with a slide of his eyes that isn't entirely committed to rolling. He wishes there was a little more left to what was in his cup just to chase the...

Not quite embarrassment. Irritation, he calls it. It's never anything less than a battle with Vanitas, he should enjoy the challenge but instead he finds it joyless, in spite of his resemblance to the boy he spent so much of his life pushing and pulling.

Funny that the idea only came to Riku when he was thinking about that old story Kairi used to tell them, one that had been told to her, not by the Mayor but maybe from the time before she arrived after starlight rained across their idyllic skies. That the light hides in the dark, after those who loved and coveted it fought each other and plunged the world into darkness.

He feels a little like he's lost a bet. That goes over about as well as one might expect, if one knows Riku, and his expression sours a little, momentarily. Vanitas turns and with his gesture his posture becomes open. Riku leans into it, his gaze locked onto his bright yellow. Strange the difference, now. It's like he's waking up, or that first gasp of fresh air a drowning man catches between slapping waves. ]

Do you still feel Sora? Want to?

[ He doesn't expect an answer. He expects a reaction, and hunts for it in his golden gaze. ]

Help me and maybe we'll survive long enough to make that happen.

[ Vanitas had said he was the shadow kept in the prison of Sora's heart. That makes him like the others who sought refuge there, by design or by fate. Roxas, Ventus, Xion. They all embraced their new and independent existences once they had them, but Vanitas surely must feel the lack where he once was.

If they were connected so intrinsically that Sora would scream in abject agony at the moment of his demise... and besides that, the darkness loves the light, in a way. That means something. Sora means something, having touched so many hearts.

Even his. ]

We won't survive long enough to guide him back by ourselves. We need a way to hide the light.

[evulsed]

[ He has a single, sharp moment of validation, in the space where Riku's gaze cuts away and his expression goes tight in the corners of his eyes and the corner of his mouth. Vanitas' own gaze narrows, hostile in his vindication, in the scent and feel of that little sting peeling off Riku around his shield, weakened by the drained margarita glass sitting on the counter.

But then Riku recovers, quick as if he's fighting, and pushes forward into Vanitas' space, and the tables turn. It's Vanitas' turn to betray the sting in the flicker of his eyes, in the way his mouth starts to curl into a sneer.

It would be no secret that Riku would know. No matter Vanitas has never spoken on it, Sora could feel him the same and Sora was this boy's best friend. He was open with his feelings, wore his heart on his sleeve, this wouldn't be something he would hide. And worse— Riku doesn't know the depth to which he's speaking. Vanitas, without a source of Light, is nothing but a black hole. If he doesn't turn that empty, hungry void outward, then he'll eat himself alive. In some ways, he's already doing it.

But Riku presents a challenge and Vanitas leans into it. Not just figuratively— but literally. His neck cranes and he narrows the distance between them further, holding eye contact with Riku unflinchingly. This close, when Riku speaks, Vanitas can smell the citrus and sugar on his breath. ]

We don't all need to survive.

[ Vanitas' voice has gone insidious for it's low pitch, barely more than a murmur; for the intensity in it layered through not only with his own greed, but speaking to the wealth of the emptiness in his heart. It's not really on purpose, the way he betrays that there's more going on under the surface than it appears.

Vanitas pulls back, maybe just half an inch, conceding the space, and in doing so agreeing to take part in this little experiment. ]

You owe me for this. I won't forget.

cw: suicidal ideation

[equinoctials]

[ We don't all need to survive.

On its surface, it could appear to be a callous disregard for the lives of all those who take shelter in Beacon. That they have the right to pick and choose who survives, like Robin's dreadful, lonely duty as the Lighthouse Keeper. It reminds him of what Bruce said, when he was inquiring about this experiment in the first place.

There's a deeper meaning, perhaps, and Riku doesn't think he would have picked up on it at all if he couldn't recognize the scent of the Darkness that pervades, that rolls off of Vanitas like he's perpetually burning with fever.

He's reminded of those days he struggled and wandered through the dark, hounded by how near the choice nipped at his heels: a despair so deep he could give up under its weight. What kept him going was the need to see his friends, to see Sora and Kairi one last time.

And what does Vanitas have? A few sparse moments of vicious glee amidst the grief he assumes Vanitas experiences?

He wonders.
If it's as bad as he thinks.
If he's not just reading what he hopes is there, some potential glimmer in all that darkness.
If Vanitas is talking about himself when he says they don't all need to make it through.
If Riku is trying in vain to relate because he's-

He slides off the bar stool and turns away. ]

When you're done here, let's go.