[OPEN] insert generic birthday song because nobody bought the happy birthday rights

[tragicomedienne]

Date and Time: August 8th, evening
Location: The Nora Cafe
Characters: Nanami Kiryuu and YOU(???) also Snow Villiers, Oerba Yun Fang, Tsubomi Hanasaki, Rise Kujikawa...all may make an appearance.
Summary: It's a party! A birthday party, precisely. Nanami wants to enforce the no-entry-without-a-gift rule, but that fell through pretty quickly.

After arrangements were made, her network post would have been updated with details. If your character would have seen it, consider it an open invitation!

Feel free to start your own threads, tag other people, hop around! There's food and some kind of cafe entertainment and Nanami will be weaving in and out. Starters are prose but bracket it up too if you want!

Rating and Warnings: G/PG probably; none I can think of.

A:

The decorations covering the cafe aren't nearly as tacky as they could have been, but there are a lot of them. The usual average (if slightly mismatched) tropical theme has been overwhelmed by streamers, balloons, and other traditional decorative trappings (those that can be found within the city, anyway).

If you're here now, congratulations! You arrived early enough for Nanami herself to make her arrival, and you've had time to scope out the food and cake situation.

This is the first of two grand entrances Nanami has planned for the evening. The second, providing Tsubomi hasn't turned everything into a burlap sack, will be the debut of her new one-of-a-kind dress. Feeling a lot better about her life and prospects (and nothing thinking at all about how horrible her not-birthday in Louisiana had turned out), and unsuspecting Nanami comes down from the back rooms and opens the door out into the cafe proper, mouth open to issue her greeting.

A cloud of confetti descends unexpectedly from nowhere, snowing down and building up on the top of her head like a salt pile. Snow's final decorative flourish.

Nanami freezes, then splutters out in surprise, blowing away a stream of confetti that somehow wound up stuck to her lips.

"Who did this?!"

Everything is ruined, for a moment.

B:

After the bad confetti idea has been done away with and cleaned up, there are still hours of partying to be had. There's food laid out at the bar and a cake (outsourced) to be brought in once things have gotten into full swing. Tacky party hats and other favors, while harder to come by than decorations in town, are also available.

It is, without the doubt, the least sophisticated party Nanami has ever attended or hosted.

As for the birthday girl herself, she can be found any number of places around the cafe. By now, she's cleaned most of the confetti from her blonde hair, but pieces of it still cling to her as if carrying the memories of happier birthdays past: a piece stuck to the her earlobe, glittery hearts nestled into her braid where she couldn't spot them in the mirror. In one hand she carries a tiny plate of assorted finger foods, and will occasionally lift something with a toothpick to scrutinize it.

She's a decent hostess, when she can be, so she'll probably get around to most people while making her rounds - providing she's not approached first.

Comments

[transgressed]

[Fang appears vaguely amused, though it's hard to say why, really — she mainly thinks the kid is trying to be polite, which is a cute sentiment, but it's not necessary for someone like her.

She would play along, though. But first...] About Snow. Noticed your er, entrance there. I wanted to let you know that he didn't mean anything bad by it.

[tragicomedienne]

[She goes beet red, one hand pressed to her mouth like she might suppress it.]

Oh, that? [She says quickly.] Ohohho! I'm over it.

[The lie is transparent.] Does it really matter why he did it, though?

[transgressed]

Are you? Well, that's good to hear. [Amused. Very carefully, she leans over to pluck a star-shaped piece of glitter from Nanami's hair, right near her ear.

She pulls back a second later, studies the shining thing trapped between her fingertips.] I think it matters. I'm guessin'...he thought, "what do girls her age like? Stuff like this, right?" I can just see him, the big lug. Rigging that whole thing up, thinking you'd like it...he didn't mean to embarrass you, is what I mean. It was the opposite. He doesn't know much about this kind of thing.

[tragicomedienne]

[Nanami freezes. Her first impulse is to draw back, for whatever reason - she's intimidated, or not used to strangers like Fang making physical contact with her.]

I think I'd already figured that out.

[It's obvious that Snow doesn't have any experience with this kind of thing.

It's laughable, thinking about him trying to set this up, but Fang's hypothesizing has gotten him to think about it too, nonetheless.] So you really think he thought I'd like something like that?

[transgressed]

Yeah, I wager he did. All that hero talk of his...really, Snow's just the sort of guy who wants to make the folks around him happy. A people-pleaser, you know?

[She taps her fingers against the bar counter.] He's not too good at thinking ahead, but I can't judge him on that.

[She wasn't too great at it either. That said though, she hops off her seat to go around the counter. Studying the bottles for a moment, and then she pipes up again:] How about a drink? [How old was this kid? Fourteen, right.] No liquor for you, of course. We'll keep it safe.

[tragicomedienne]

That's just going to get him in trouble. [It's stupid to try and waste his time like that - but then, without men like him she'd never have enough people to be her employees.

If she ever gets out of here, that is.

Fang's offer of a drink, however, snaps her out of those thoughts.]

Of course not! [Nanami says sweetly.] Thank you for offering. I'm sure it will be wonderful.

[transgressed]

Maybe. [The agreement is neutral. It had already gotten him in trouble, far as she was concerned.] But he's got people like me looking out for him. He'll be alright.

[She's no bartender, but she's been in Snow's cafe long enough to know what tastes right and what doesn't.

It's eschews the ice to chill the glasses in her hands — l'Cie magic had more mundane benefits too — and slides Nanami's over to her. It's likely very fruity, and very girlish. She was even nice enough to include a straw.

Her own drink had about 100% more liquor in it, truth be told. Cheap liquor, but beggars couldn't be choosers.] We'll have a toast.

[tragicomedienne]

Thank you...

[It's marble-mouthed, the usual sweetness she takes up with adults blocked somewhat by how flustered she is, marveled by the magic. She wraps her palms around the cold glass, waiting for the toast.]

Some kind of man he is if he needs someone looking out for him.

[transgressed]

Don't mention it.

[She crosses one leg over the other — despite her appearance, this motion is surprisingly elegant.

The comment about Snow earns a raised eyebrow.] Yeah? What sort of man doesn't? [What did this kid know about men anyway?]

[tragicomedienne]

[It's elegant, and it's a distraction. Nanami is ladylike: She's quite capable of crossing her legs elegantly, so it really shouldn't bother her. But even then, something about Fang makes her feel young, not like one of the adults but like someone completely out of her space, out of her power. She clears her throat and sits up straighter, clutching her drink close.]

Well... [she offers.] A real one, right?

[transgressed]

[That gets a surprised laugh out of her. It's cute, the response, the hesitance she sees, but something about it needles her, too. The question in her head now leans less toward what Nanami knew about men, and more toward what sort of men she knew.

Well, it was none of her business, anyway.]

Ha! Is that so? A real man, huh...well, I've never known a man who didn't need help, here and there.

[tragicomedienne]

[Nanami laughs a little, too, like maybe she doesn't know if Fang was trying to insult her or not, implying that there's something about the world she yet doesn't know.]

Are they all like Snow?

[That'd explain it, after all.]

[transgressed]

[She thinks about that, shakes her head.]

No. Not all of them. [Something comes to mind:] Snow confuses you, doesn't he?

[It's not an unkind assessment. She looks curious.]