[OPEN Mingle] Happy Anniversary and Happy Holidays!

[robintohood]

Who: Mingle post! Jason Todd robintohood is also available in a separate top-level comment
What: Festivities at the Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge
When: Week of November 27th and throughout December
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: N/A for now. Will edit if needed.

[By god, the weird (and only sometimes shady) New Jerseyian karaoke bar in the middle of Michigan has made it. The Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge has hit its first anniversary. To celebrate, there are special discount rates for customers and even deeper ones for the repeated loyal clients.

Because Descendant’s birthday is also at the very beginning of the winter holiday season, the whole place has been decorated to reflect the occasions. There’s the usual colorful tinsel, wreathes, Santa hats, and fake holly plants but there are also special additions the Descendant’s staff did. There are hidden Santa Gritty figures and decorations throughout the building. More blatant are the Christmas trees throughout the building adorned with Gritty baubles. Instead of an elf on a shelf, behind the bar on the top shelf is a Gritty figure next to the maneki-neko figure Mayuko gifted Jason last year during Descendant’s grand opening. Both figures are there all year round but for this time of the year, they’re rocking Santa hats too.

As for the Descendant’s owner, his presence is oddly sparse despite his business hitting a milestone. Jason’s still monitoring daily operations and is still making sure tasks are being properly delegated but during these last weeks of the year, he’s not at Descendant as often as he usually is. He can still be contacted though, namely if there’s an emergency.

Meanwhile, if one were to carefully eavesdrop on some of the Descendant’s more shady customers, one might hear that the Backbreakers gang and their leader, the Red Hood, might be having… problems holding their remaining territory. The rumors have been going since mid-November after the mysterious bombings to several of the Backbreakers’ safehouses.

So come in from the cold and celebrate, be it Descendant’s birthday or a winter holiday. Have a holiday drink like a spiked eggnog, a gingerbread martini, or a wassail. The karaoke machines are full of holiday songs to sing to as well.]

((OOC: Mingle post! Go have fun, folks. Jason’s own top-level is right here. My contact information is on this journal's profile and I'm in the game's Discord server. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns as well. I also have a feedback post.))

Comments

[robintohood]

[Calmly]

What gave you that idea?

[Mayuko’s not wrong but between her and Mark, he’s not used to civilians being able to read him like this. Then again, perhaps his exhaustion has made him careless with his guard]

[welcome_summer]

Well. I know some people back home who are bearing up under extremely painful circumstances. Things that have been haunting them their entire lives. Things that upended their lives in moments and still cause suffering. They carry on, arrange and rearrange the burden so it doesn't get in the way. But--

[She stops herself, grasping for a way to articulate this. With Hatori, she had seen the difference between his happiness and the resigned existence he was accepting, even after a distance of two years.

With Jason, it seems to be more him throwing as much fuel into the fires as he could. Maybe not caring if he got burned in the process.]

It's its own weight. And if too much gets added, or something in the stack shifts, people get crushed.

[robintohood]

[Plainly]

I'm used to shifting weight.

[To somewhere that's probably not healthy though]

Worked hard all my life and figured how to move even when I'm at a low point.

[welcome_summer]

What's happening now, then?

[robintohood]

Nothing. Just been busy.

[Such a lie]

[welcome_summer]

[That lie was so egregious that Sable forms their vaguely humanoid shape beside Mayuko from the shadows under the table, just to add their staaaaaaare to hers.]

There's "busy", and leagues from that is "whatever you've been up to".

[robintohood]

[With Mayuko and Sable looking at him like that, Jason vaguely wonders if that's what it looks like with him and Sleeper. Jason's also reminded that there's a certain matter he has to finally address]

Look, there's stuff about me that you're safer off not knowing about.

[welcome_summer]

Oh, I've heard that one plenty of times. I don't believe it, but it makes the other person feel better....

[Judging the look on her face, Sable makes the executive decision to move the book... and the mug... out of Mayuko's physical reach. JUST IN CASE.]

I appreciate the consideration. So much, I do! And I do my best to keep out of your business--that's part of the reason I moved East, so I wouldn't be fussed about what happens in Central.

But also some things are out of the bag, and your attempts to run circles around the issue piss me off because that's what my shitty ex and my mother do to me. ALL. THE TIME.

[robintohood]

[Jason sighs. Mayuko is clearly not going to give this up anytime soon]

The point still stands that I can't tell you exactly what's going on.

[welcome_summer]

[Mayuko plants her elbows on the table and leans on one hand, away from Jason.]

That's all you had to say in the first place, you know? It's fine.

["Heads so hard they could break boulders. No wonder you get along," Sable observes, amused.]

[robintohood]

[Jason snorts at the comment from the peanut gallery]

Yeah but you’re upset.

[welcome_summer]

[It's a compromise-sort of understanding, nobody's supposed to come away completely happy. Mayuko shrugs.]

That's several degrees better than I have been feeling. Things are going back in the right direction.

[robintohood]

Nice touch with the sleeper neko. Inside included.

[Which should be a good enough hint]

[welcome_summer]

I TOLD YOU, why should I keep them if they aren't of use to me? You have an entire big city to snoop on here, you don't need another.

[robintohood]

[Ugh. He hates he has to have this conversation because it means admitting some things]

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

[welcome_summer]

For want of a little more adhesive in one spot, it could have been flawless.

[Mayuko grabs her mug back and hums. Good, still warm.]

You understand why it was a discomforting find, right?

[robintohood]

Yeah, I get it.

[Even if putting trackers on someone is a love language in his family sometimes]

You know, you’re taking this calmer than most people would.

[welcome_summer]

Because you're my friend and I trust you? You're neither a kid nor, from what I saw in your memory, an amateur, so you're responsible for your choices and aware of possible consequences?

Not to say I'm not going to worry, but... I'm not mad about that.

[robintohood]

[Ugh. The memory shares are some of his most hated experiences being on this Earth. Mayuko still willing to call him a friend is interesting though]

Even after seeing a little bit of my other job?

[welcome_summer]

[Mayuko takes a sip of the wine. Giving the question the full weight of consideration.]

... have I ever told you about the first person I met at Camp Fuck U Die? The first new person, that is.

[robintohood]

Nope. Haven’t heard of that.

[Though he does remember Mayuko talking about that camp before]

[welcome_summer]

Okay... so about an hour after I got there, I run into this guy in an open area. Tall, in a suit and top hat. Gray skin, crosses etched into his forehead. We talk for a bit. Newcomer-type things since I obviously have my suitcases and all. I look over, and the people I knew from home, my friends, one of my students? They're watching, and they've gone pale.

[robintohood]

[Oh he doesn’t like where this is going]

What was wrong?

[welcome_summer]

Well, unbeknownst to me, my shitty ex-boyfriend I mentioned earlier was also there. At that time he was dating this... strange man, Tyki Mikk. So my acquaintances were... nervous about his encountering me because he might do something rash out of... jealousy or something. Like use his phasing powers to make some of my internal parts external, or a particular trick, implant carnivorous butterflies into my abdomen and watch them eat their way out.

AND if that happened, they would have to haul me to the swamps and wait, like, two weeks for me to revive. Because the only thing that could hurt this guy was sanctified or holy weapons, so by the time someone with those could be rounded up, I'd be a goner.

[robintohood]

[Jason frowns as he listens. Tyki sounded like another mass murderer walking around with no consequences to face]

So what really happened?