dance like it's the last night - party

[fulzanin]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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This was it. An actual party. Not some small festivity she hosted around her house. This was a real party. With real confetti. All her knowledge of party throwing had converged into this one task, a task assigned to her a few days ago. She'd been preparing for days now, setting things up, forcing her mind to calm so that she could properly set up this party. Feza had been told to keep it small and classy. It'd gotten lost in translation in her mind. Go big or go home, her mind had screamed. Party was eternal and it was all that mattered right here, right now. A big get-together for the group and an ally. Not that she particularly knew who Tanglewood's allies were. Feza regarded herself as a party thrower far before she described herself as a guardsman. It was fine by her. When her and Aurum had both been guardsmen, she certainly considered him to be the more qualified of the two - and not just because during their time as guardsman had she been scared shitless by him.

Deep breaths. Focus. No thinking about negatives. She had her paws entwined with a whole lot of string, and glitter glue stuck clumps of her vibrant fur together. It was party time. No negatives. Party time. Another deep breath, calming a brief flutter of nerves. She could do this. She'd been doing this for months. She was Tanglewood's best party thrower, and finally she was being recognized for her talents to host an actual party. Yes, her task had been assigned by someone technically lower than her in the ranking system. Did it matter to her? No. Not at all. Hadn't crossed her mind. All she knew was that someone recognized her party throwing skills, and she was living the dream at the time. She'd been creating small decorations for a few days now. Feza didn't want to go and ruin the tavern, not so soon after it being fixed up. She made sure that everything was small, and that the decorations were minimal. It wasn't about the decorations after all. Those weren't important. The party itself was important. Yes, atmosphere was important, but Feza would say that the actual party needed to be as equally as grand.

The party itself was... something, alright. Feza'd set up a bar of snacks. Lots of different snacks. Drinks? No. Feza didn't know what that was, and so instead she had just made some icy cups of water and set them out. If she could have found some containers of candy, or for some other festive treats she totally would have brought those as well. In addition to the food, Feza had also prepared small activities - as all her parties did. Small ones, segmented off in their small spaces by small painted twigs. It screamed her ever present desire and her habits of party throwing. She didn't host actual get-togethers: there had to be small events littered around for people to do. The games really weren't games. Arts and crafts, as all Feza's previous little parties had been. Apparently her time tables were messed up, since she'd gotten her paws on some eggs and had easter egg creation set up somewhere. There was another small 'station' for what looked like coloring books, but glitter glue was to be used instead of crayons or pencils. Overall, it was the average bout of Feza festivities wrapped all together on a greater scale.

The snow leopard set down the string, the last streamer that she'd been making. Feza felt exhaustion nip into her, but she forced it down. This would be worth it. It would be fun! Festive! Everyone would have a great time. Everyone would smile, and be happy! It was what she wanted, had always wanted. Carefully she grabbed the rest of her supplies, moving them off and out of sight. Feza had to sit down for a few minutes, gathering herself and so that she could fully shove her exhaustion back under wraps. Party time. Party time. Her mind chanted it to her, refueling her strength and gifting her limbs with energy. She stood again, moving over to the entrance of the tavern. Feza felt mighty proud, and it aided her attempts to regain the energy lost by setting up this 'big deal' party. "Okay everyone! The, the party is about to begin! The super big party! The greatest and most festive party that I've, that I have ever created!" Sucking in the air to shout felt incredibly difficult. Feza would manage for the party and the smiles, and raised up her form to again rebuild her ever joyful demeanor. "There's snacks and activities and, and there's icy cups to drink out of!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

Over time, Aurum had come to be less irritated by Feza's little shenanigans. Of course, the main motivating factor in this had been when Feza had a breakdown over being petrified of him, but even before that, he had begun to loosen up a bit over the frequent festivities she saw fit to set up. After all, when he had first arrived in Tanglewood, he had been a grumpy vicious bastard who was only there for his brother and wasn't particularly interested in interacting with anyone, let alone at some loud and overly cheery event. Now, however? He didn't really see them as a nuisance, so much as a regular occurence that allowed him to hang out with others in a context that wasn't just professional, or motivated by a need to fight something. Well, sort of regular occurence. It had seemed as though, lately, Feza was throwing less and less grandiose activities, and Aurum wasn't really sure how he felt about that. On one hand, he no longer thought of the events as nuisances, and was a bit disappointed about it. On the other hand, he also thought it was... good, for Feza to take a break from such things. After all, even though the snow leopard was very careful to shove down all her unpleasant feelings and just general exhaustion, it wasn't hard to tell if you had been around her long enough, and Aurum certainly had. She used parties to cover up all of her problems, and having a break from being in denial all the time? That seemed like a positive, at least to Aurum.

Still, it was a bit of a relief, when Aurum had padded into town, back from a border patrol, to hear Feza's high and excited voice call lightly through the air. He could somewhat remember her being given a task related to parties, but the lion had been so focused on his own task and Roy's that he had pretty much entirely forgotten about it, at least until now. Part of Aurum internally winced when he noticed that she had used the tavern for such an event, but he quickly squashed that part down, shaking his head a little bit. Even if the tavern had been his baby project, that didn't mean that it was his. It belonged to the whole of the group, and had practically been designed for social events like this. It was only natural that Feza would choose to throw a party here of all places. Besides, if she really made it that much of a chaotic mess, he could always take some time later to clean it all up, along with roping her into helping. He wasn't sure what he could bribe her with to get her to think that cleaning would be fun, but he could certainly think of something between now and tomorrow. Perhaps he could pretend the cleaning was some sort of fun game where you scored points for picking things up? It seemed like the type of trick used on small children, but honestly the similarities between Feza and small children weren't that insignificant.

Shoving that all to the back of his mind for later, the proxy found himself padding over with a casual smile on his face, quick to show Feza that he was in a decent mood. Sure, they had definitely had their spats and differences in the past, but Aurum liked to think they had put that all behind them, even if Feza occasionally still looked at him like he was about to eat her head, or something equally ridiculous. As he stepped up to look inside and glance around, he found himself smiling slightly, charmed by the various decorations that had been strung up, along with the activites – even though he was pretty sure that glitter glue coloring book would absolutely be a disaster by the end of the night. Stepping back out to sit with Feza, the male rumbled warmly, "Hey, Feza. The party looks very nice, and I'm sure everyone will love it... are you feeling alright?" Yet again, Aurum could see the faint shadows that Feza was attempting to hide in her eyes, trying her damnedest not to make it seem like she was tired at all. Even with her efforts, the lion could see that it was all bullshit, and he almost wanted to encourage her to go and take a nice long nap. It wasn't as if everyone couldn't enjoy the party, even without the hostess.

template by orion

[ROXANNE R.]

CANNIBAL QUEEN { .:*・°☆ } ——— [size=10pt]info

Roan had given her the Puppy eyes trick and well, Roxanne wasn't at the point of parenting where she could say no to him it didn't help either since he was her only child, she knew it would be a long trip to Tanglewood and she was well aware of the dangers that lurked in the swamp mainly all the alligators so she thought it would be a smart idea to bring her own toothy companion along to provide them protection. Well, Kalayavan had no issue warding off the smaller reptiles even though the feeling of the murky waters belonging to the Typhoon made him inwardly wince, one of the gators would be daring only for the large saltwater crocodile to snap their jaws onto them with such ease. Eventually, Roxanne and Roan had gotten to the party. She walked into the area where it was being held with both ears perked forward and well, there was a large crocodile behind her too so that definitely wasn't a normal sight. She would have flown them over to the party but she didn't think she would have been able to make the flight carrying Roan, she knew she would have to take a break here and there but it didn't seem to matter now since they were already there attending Feza's party, her whiskers twitched.

She blinked at the sight of Feza and a large lion, her ears pressing against her cranium only to glance over to both her children with a smile crossing her face "Alright boys, have fun but don't head near the water. We don't wanna cause anymore trouble," Her gaze mainly concentrated onto Kal as the crocodile finished off the last chunk of alligator that he had in his jaws. She felt her legs growing a bit wobbly though she pushed herself inwards as she spoke with a smile on her maw "Hello," There was a bit of a pause before she added with a small nod of her cranium "I'm Roxanne and that's my boy, Roan. Thank you for inviting us to your party,"
"character's speech."

[THEM]

[align=center][div style="text-align:justify;width:55%;font-family:verdana;"]Kazuhira had asked for classy, something low-key - a dinner party, maybe, or some kind of inter-clan meet and greet. This was... The exact opposite of that. Feza was prone to misinterpretation, he was starting to learn. If he wanted things done right, he ought to have done the task himself, but in reality he wasn't sure what else to give her - an ally event wasn't really on the forefront of his mind until she asked for something to do. And Feza only seemed to care about festivities, even if she rigidly adhered to her own guidelines. He sidesteps a cluster of paper confetti that had gathered by the door.

She looks exhausted, which strikes him as unprecedented. Feza always seemed to be a well of positivity, however naive; the unfamiliar look of forced friendliness on her face borders on unnerving. He surveys the tavern, tries to find the right words, and fails to come up with anything that wouldn't completely destroy her confidence (however artificial it was). "Ah," Had she always been so tired? He isn't sure what to make of all this anymore. He musters up, "Good job on the party."

It's good enough. She completed the task, which was more than he could say for the others he'd assigned work to. He'd sit back and mingle, take a night off for once. He'd never traveled to the Typhoon yet, so it was an opportunity to establish connections in the seafaring clan. Kaz gives a small nod of acknowledgement towards Roxanne. "Welcome to Tanglewood, ma'am. We're happy to have you."

[fulzanin]

[div style="width: 70%; height: auto; text-align:center; font-family:times new roman; font-size: 11pt; color: #FD0CBB; background: linear-gradient(#FDDFFF, #DFFFFD); text-align: justify; border-radius: 5em 5em 1em 1em; padding: 20px;"][align=center]WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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The first to arrive was Aurum. That was expected. She'd been asked to host the party in the tavern - or at least, she was pretty sure she had for now that she was looking back on it she couldn't exactly remember the phrase - and figured that since the lion had been the one to renovate it, he'd be coming over quickly. Her tail swung behind her. Hopefully, the snow leopard was, that this would be a party worthy of approval. "It's very nice and very enjoyable," Feza agreed. Her blue gaze turned back to all the decorations she'd put up. Easily removed, spare the piles of confetti. She'd tried to set those up so that they would go off in a big festive plume, but alas it hadn't worked and so she had tossed them randomly into the air to get the same affect. The other asked about her exhaustion next. Hastily Feza pulled her wings closer, lifting her body and head up more. "I'm perfectly alright! Everything is alright when it's party time," the female chattered dismissively in response.

Sporadic attention was swiftly obtained by the first members of the Typhoon arriving. Feza hadn't ever really learned the difference between crocodiles and alligators, they looked the same to her. It wasn't as if Feza was scared of the reptiles - her one interaction with them hadn't left a deep impression on her mind - but more so was surprised by the size. Her tail swung slowly behind her, grin spreading across her face. "Oh! Uh, uh- welcome! To Tanglewood. And the party. And- and the tavern. You can uh, you- you can head on in and do whatever you'd like. I don't have the paint set out yet! Knew I'd forgotten someth- I'll go get that in a bit." The vibrant female blathered rapidly, thoughts swiftly leaping from one idea to the next.

Then there was Kaz, the person that had asked for her to throw this festivity. He was a chaser now, wasn't he? She'd been a chaser once. It had been a title and position she'd shared with Aurum. It'd been... not fun, due to her own issues piling up. "Thank you! I've never done an ally event before! It's going to be super fun and festive," Feza chattered, nodding her head in delight. A paw raised, rubbing her eyes and then the side of her head. Just a little help to wake back up. "The most festive ally party the island's ever seen, in fact," were the words she quietly insisted after her paw lowered back down. She was sitting there, not helping the festivities begin. That wouldn't be good. Feza shook out her pelt and rose up, bouncing back towards the doorway. "Everyone can go on in if they'd, if, if they'd like. I'm gonna stay out here and welcome anyone else who decides to go, to come to the party."

[ocelot .]

Word was quick to spread in any clan, and in a clan that was as tightly-knit as the Typhoon, it didn't take long for the word of an allied party to reach Revolver, despite his having missed on the original invitation. So it was that the ocelot began his small journey, walking across that railroad bridge that first brought him to the place he now lived, a travel to some backwoods swamp town, for all he knew. He'd spent a lot of time in swamps, of course, so he knew how to live with the muck and the plants and, worst of all, the gators, so it would be trivial for him. A simple task, even if every step he took would probably float a feeling of discomfort and distress, of being alone in a battlefield, higher and higher in his brain.

It was shocking for him when he reached the town of Tanglewood, which was swamp-adjacent at most, and seemed awfully quaint to him regardless. A pleasant shock, of course. He didn't want to relive memories of a weaker version of himself anytime soon. He approached the tavern, and the technicolor leopard that guarded it, with a caution befitting someone in unfamiliar territory, mental hands tugging at his red scarf, desperately trying to stave off the paranoid voice that told him he was in enemy territory, that he had to be on his guard. What he had to do was relax - there was no point in coming here to socialize and gather intel if he was going to be wound up tighter than a rattlesnake in heat.

"Howdy," he said to Feza upon his approach, glancing at the people gathered around already. Roxanne and Roan, people he was acquainted with, a lion, who looked very placid at best (though it didn't take much in-depth observation to see his battle scars), and - shit. He sure hoped that wasn't who he thought it was. He had one person from his past pop up, and one was far too many. It'd distract from his schmoozing if he was busy reconnecting with someone from his past, especially someone who might have not liked him too much.

With force, he tugs his eyes away from the phantom, looking back again to Feza. "I'm from the Typhoon - do I just head on in there?" He kept his voice smooth, unstressed, despite the very present stress bubbling up in his chest. So far, this was not a very positively productive trip.

tags - "speech"

[roan ;]

[align=center][div style="width: 45%; text-align: justify; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: -1px; font-family: times new roman;"]♡ — It was party time, and Roan was more than just a little bit excited. It had taken a little bit of rabid pleading and some serious puppy dog eyes in order to get his mama to agree to go, but now here he was, out of Typhoon territory and at a real, genuine party. The tiny winged kit was rushing after Roxanne with such enthusiasm that he nearly ran into his mother's leg when she stopped walking, only barely managing to skid to a stop before he did so. His wide blue eyes moved upwards once he came to a stop, a soft gasp leaving the boy when he saw the large tavern in front of them. Sure, they had a tavern back in the Typhoon, but he had never seen it all decorated like this before. It looked so exciting, and amazing, and the boy was so jittery that he couldn't stop his wings from flapping every couple of seconds. The only thing that finally got him to pay attention to those around him was the sound of his mother's voice, along with a soft pat on the head to make him tear his eyes away from his new surroundings.

As soon as he saw Feza, he grinned eagerly, immediately recognizing her for the invitation. He practically bolted forward to launch himself into a huge around one of the snow leopard's front legs, meowing happily, "Hola, Feza! It's Roan, remember me? Mama agreed to go to your party! It looks so nice!" He glanced up once again at the building, before continuing, "Are we gonna play games? Do you have fun games planned, huh? You seem like the type to have games." He was grinning, and waited a moment for her response, but the moment was gone quickly, as he noticed another Tangler nearby he had never met. Perking up with interest, the child rushed around to Kaz's front, dwarfed by the adult cheetah in front of him. Still, he didn't seem very frightened, just smiling crookedly up at Miller and saying as his tiny tail swished from side to side, "Dia dhuit, mister! I'm Roan, like my mama said... what's your name? I like your spots." There was so much for the boy to notice and be stimulated by in the new environment that it seemed as though his mind was stumbling over itself to catch up.

[THEM]

[align=center][div style="text-align:justify;width:55%;font-family:verdana;"]"...Yeah, alright." Feza wasn't exactly oozing joy this time around. She seemed to be laying it on thick, really, pushing the agenda that everything was a-okay and she totally wasn't stressing about something under the surface. He wants to press further, but he knows better than to make a scene; it'll either end in tears or anger, and he isn't ready to handle that kind of outburst. He'd already figured out that not many people were enjoying his assignments. "Let me know if you need any - oh." The words die in his throat along with his breath.

This is the part where he gets assassinated, isn't it?

In front of a child and all his friends, too. How tragic. He wasn't sure why he expected more generosity, or at the very least, a sliver of nuance - Ocelot probably didn't care if his slit throat spattered all over those sorry faces, anyway. The blood and glitter would make for an artful display.

He considers his options, a split-second maneuver: run like a fool and die anyway, or put up a fight while he goes out. If this was a planned attack, Ocelot's already won - even in Kazuhira's own domain, he has the weapons, the skill, the element of surprise. All he needed to do was act, and he would have his prize. At least he would die knowing that Revolver took the coward's route, picking off his enemies one by one without a blaze of glory, without the benefit of a fair fight. (Then again, Miller would've done the same.)

But he isn't dead faster than he can think of all the ways he'll paint the walls, which comes as a genuine surprise. In fact, nothing happens, which might be worse than receiving an impromptu tracheotomy. Rather than bull-rushing him, Revolver is standing dead still, expressing just enough visible shock to leave Kazuhira delighted to have caught him off his guard. They've played a similar game before, in different circumstances, but at the time they were fighting for the same side. He'd relish watching the Typhoon's infiltrator struggle to avoid him for the evening. He postures himself, just a little bit. Puffs out his chest a little, tucks down his chin. Smiles, like the bastard he is.

It's only for the better that another member of the Typhoon is rushing up to him, squeaking out an over-excited greeting. Let Revolver see how well he's done for himself - let him be jealous that Kaz was still the socialite, the better man."Why, hello there, Roan," he beams down at the kitten, stooping down just enough to make eye contact. All the while he keeps one ear swiveled on the other's conversation, watching him just as carefully smother his unease and linger around the door. His visible attention, though, remains on Roan. "You can call me Miller. This is a nice party, isn't it? Feza, over there - she does a lot of work to pull these off." It wasn't anything close to what he'd planned, but he figured her activities were great for someone who appeared no older than a kit.