entrancelogs | OPEN | let's change from the heart, let's shout

Who: Anyone and everyone! That means you! Yes, you, c'mere.
Where: The stream and the lake.
When: July 12th, evening.
Rating: PG ~~in case any of y'all get wild with that decorating~~.
Summary: Come and take part in a mini lantern ceremony, Wonderland-style. Mingle away, comrades!
The Story:

The evening of the 12th, visitors who feel like moseying their way to the stream where it empties out of the forest will be able to enjoy a summer celebration in the Japanese style. Outdoor lights illuminate the area, and tables hold all manner of art supplies and blank paper lanterns waiting to be decorated.

Didn't catch the network 411? Someone around will surely explain: it's a nod to toro nagashi, the paper lantern ceremony meant to guide the souls of the departed by decorating lanterns and setting them loose. Maybe you have a departed soul you'd like to remember, or a prayer to make. Maybe you'd just like to write a note message-in-a-bottle style. Maybe you just feel like taking the air and enjoying the sights. The choice is yours!

Either way, once the sun has set and lanterns have been decorated, the candles inside will be lit (remember fire safety, kids!), and the lanterns will be released into the water.

Gather at the lakeside afterward to watch them empty into the lake and enjoy the ambiance with some food and drink. Because we could all use a little more light in our lives, no?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ If there's one event Haru has been simultaneously looking forwards to and dreading, it's this one. The nod to toro nagashi is always going to be a welcome one, a piece of home that Ryuji has managed to bring into Wonderland almost effortlessly. From what Haru has seen, the people around seem to be getting into the swing of things when it comes to decorating and releasing their lanterns, even she's managed to get the closet to work with her and gift a light pink yukata. With her hair tied back, Haru almost looks like she belongs there.

She just can't help but wonder how many people were remembering lost loved ones, or if they were just here to take part in something different. It's difficult to not think of her father or the sudden and violent manner in which he'd died as she decorates the lantern with an amateurish UFO design. It wasn't the best flying saucer nor the most traditional of things but Haru knows her father would understand it somehow, or at least get the reference.

They'd been helping. At first it had been hard to keep hold of that thought. What if they hadn't helped? Would he still be alive? Perhaps, though even now as Haru lights the lantern and holds it lightly against her chest she can't help but accept the reality that it would most likely have happened regardless of what they'd done. Her father's killer would not have stopped just because they did.

It's been a while since Haru arrived in Wonderland and ever since she arrived she's been running around doing things and keeping busy. Today is the first day she's even allowing herself to grieve; head bowed as she keeps hold of the lantern, a tear or two managing to escape as she tries to keep some kind of composure. She wants to put the lantern on the water yet the realization is a bit much; that this is actually it, her father isn't coming back and despite the fact he'd become more and more horrible as the years had passed, he had still been her father. Letting go of the lantern is akin to acknowledging that everything had happened and her fingers dig in ever so slightly.]

I'm sorry...

[ The feeling of displacement never quite goes away. There are moments it stares him down and is allowed to pass out of his useless ire, unable to do anything else. For their freedom of movement and from their reputation back home, their sticky circumstance, they pay for it in Wonderland with isolation from their purpose. Akira feels the sharp from under his ribs gone. He feels dulled without it, carrying that with him even as the weeks pass and he finds his chill.

It's moments like these when they are gathered and he can forget the ache a little easier. And it's moments like these - retiring from manning the refreshments he'd brought and trailing behind Haru, watching her at a reasonable distance - when it's suddenly sharp again in a new way.

He's had to lose his purpose. The same couldn't be said for his father.

Back here his tight expression is safely behind Haru, burying the sting of that failure as it tries to resurface. There's nothing to be said that hasn't already been committed to the air but Akira has a wealth of something pressing hard up his throat, never to be passed for its size. He doesn't think any of it would help anyway. There's well-meaning sentiments and then there's cold, hard facts. And bodies.

He'd passed on unburdening himself of his lamp earlier. Now seems like an okay opportunity to follow through, his geta whispering through the grass on his way to stand next to Haru and lean toward the water, releasing it carefully, fingertips lingering near to touch on the water's surface.

Did he give her enough time? Akira isn't terrible with crying and there was no mistaking the misery roiling off of her even at a distance but he didn't know her heart like the others. Akira didn't know what was okay, what to say, so he didn't.

The gunmental trim of his yukata was smooth on the pads of his fingers, fidgeting with the sleeves before risking a look at Haru head on, both an inquiry and assurance such as it can be. ]

Heh, that's a great lantern. The water's so dark it's like space; it'll look like it's flyin'.

_{[Ryuji, coming up beside Haru, can't resist the wryly humored curl to his tone. A UFO. Okumura Foods. Some in Wonderland who'd met Futaba without seeing the inside of Okumura's Palace might think the lantern was in homage to their MIA navigator, but Ryuji knows better. It's a while back in the past for him, but he'd been there, inside her father's heart, and it's kind of perfect from what little he knew of the man.

In one of his typical garishly bright tank tops, thumbs hooked into the back pockets, his sneakers leave lattice-like treads in the soft mud by the stream as he shifts his feet, glancing at Haru almost tentatively.

He knows a little, not a lot, and wanting to comfort his friend doesn't immediately translate into how to do so.

His hand swings out like he might touch her--a pat to the back, a warm weight on a shoulder, some tangible scrap of comfort--but Ryuji is a rough-and-tumble person at the best of times and Haru looks even more soft and delicate than usual in her yukata, hair pulled off her neck. Almost as if afraid he'll ham-handedly shatter her into pieces if he touches her, he aborts the gesture, pretending like he'd been about to ruffle his hair the whole time.]}

Are you-- do you...? _{[Can he do something?]} I just, uh. Was worried if you're all right.

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_{["What are you doing, Ryuji"--the eternal mystery. God only knows if he knows what he's going to do at any given moment.

Case in point: though he plays it safe and decides against the uninvited back-patting session, he drifts closer without much conscious thought involve. In Haru's time, she's still new enough to the team plastic wrap is practically still on her, but in his time, after solving the conspiracy and overcoming the trials of Mementos, he counts Haru an irreplaceable friend.

When his friends are upset, it upsets him, too; he wishes there was a way to fix this for her in a way where she gets to continue on as a phantom thief and keep her father in her time.]}

You think? I was hopin' that was the case.

_{[He's pleased to hear it. This gesture was always meant for them--as in everyone else--not him.]}

To be honest, I've been wonderin' how you're doin' for a while now. Sorry if I'm interruptin'--I didn't know if you wanted to be alone.

OPEN | let's change from the heart, let's shout

OTA

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bull-crashes your china shop, eyyy

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