onebetter: (true joy)
James Griffin ([personal profile] onebetter) wrote in [community profile] daybreakacademy2019-08-14 12:11 am

A Birthday Boy

Who: James, Keith and the people invited to James' birthday party (Toki, Ana, Adelaide, Nana, Ruby, Nadia, Allura & Yuya!)
When: August 13th (Keith part), August 18th (Party)
What: James' birthday (spent at home in Arizona) & James' Soleil birthday party, spent at a Café de la Lune in Soleil.
Warnings: None for party, mentions of NSFW in Keith & James', though anything explicit will be moved off-comm.

[ All people listed above will have received a text message on August 15th. ]

Hey there!
I'm currently out of the country, but my birthday passed recently and I'd like to celebrate with my friends a little once I return home. Are you free on August 18th? I'd love to get a group together and go down to Café de la Lune for the afternoon. It'll be my treat.

No worries if you're not free that day, but I'd love to see you there!


[ On the actual day of, everyone will find that James has reserved the biggest table in the café so everyone can fit comfortably. He's already ordered a few pastries for everyone and is more than willing to order more. James is pretty much beaming. Also his toad is here. Just sitting on his shoulder. Occasionally being fed bits of cake from a special toad-reserved spoon. ]

Thank you all for coming! If I'm honest, I actually had a bit of trouble making friends when I came here. That was new to me. I'm all the more happy to have met all of you. You made me look forward to coming back to France after vacation.

((Feel free to post open top levels and just chit-chat with one another / interrupt conversations, as it tends to happen at group tables. Also no pressure to tag in, anyone who doesn't will just be seen as having been busy that day and not as having skipped his party, haha.))

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-14 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[It's business-like and perfunctory. Marcel takes the phone back.]

It's necessary.

[Whether he means signing the form or the use of the leash, or both, James may never know.]

Do you have any other questions, Mr. Griffin?

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-14 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[Marcel very much doubts that. He will return at exactly 6pm, expecting chaos to have befallen the cafe.]

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-14 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
He's just... doing his job...

[He doesn't sound convinced, but he shouldn't speak out against the guard when someone may be listening in somehow. They always know what's going on.]

Anyway! I'm sorry you had to sign that, but I will pay for like any damages or whatever if something happens! Not that it will! I'm not going to have any visions anyway, so that has to help!

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-16 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't use my phone, so like- I can't, but that's a nice gesture!

[James is a good friend, which he's a bit surprised by since their initial first encounter was so awkward.]

I'm using orichalcum.

[He points to his right ear. There's a cat earring.]

The post is orichalcum, because I didn't want to use too much of it, but like- it blocks visions from reaching me somehow- magic~! But I have them later, after I take it off. So like, if I was supposed to have like three visions at this party, tonight they'll all come at once. I did it before; I had an orichalcum bracelet that... didn't work out, and it took me a while to try it again.

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-17 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
That's the plan! I'll use it in class!

[The party is certainly more important than classes, though.]

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-18 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm trying! I was going to take summer classes, but they all got cancelled and everyone got As, so I passed anyway and that was like... not fair. I will do better this semester!

[Unless he forgets which classes he has, or just never attends. Those things happen.]

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-18 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[He was, surprisingly, upset about that announcement too. Just when he was coming back from Soleil and motivated to learn things.]

I've been studying in the library on my own instead, since I'm like way behind anyway.

[He quickly scans the room for any obvious signs of being watched, then lowers his voice.]

I've also been looking into... certain things.

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-19 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I figured, since you and uhh... your roommate were looking into Outlands things, that I would go for things from here. Like, people talked about... my website... as like conspiracies, right? So I looked into statements and articles about things like that. In the campus library mostly, but sometimes I could sneak off for a second to run to the one in Soleil and... borrow some books...

[He absolutely stole them, because he couldn't be gone long enough to check them out. It had to be seconds to escape Marcel and run all the way there and back.]

Anyway, there are human... factions, if you will, that support Nightfall. Mentions of cults talking about the sun being stolen, all written up as hoaxes of course... and other seers, or like people labelled insane with no mention of magic stuff, that have very specific and almost identical descriptions of these other worlds where daemons are gathering to destroy the earth. And they want to help. Mostly in exchange for things they think they can get through magic if the join the daemons... Some who just want to take the world down in flames. It's not just the Outlands. It's made me rethink things...

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-19 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

[Toki considers how to word this for a minute. None of it's good, really.]

I think that Nightfall, or not Nightfall itself, but I mean the conflict? It's inevitable. We can't get anyone to discuss it or solve anything diplomatically, because there's too many sides and too many opinions, and like you said before, it's... a resource conflict, but it's also life or death for some. You can't reason with those people, and is it even reasoning? Because... everyone; humans, daemons, lycanthropes, all the Outland kingdoms and realms and everyone- I mean, I used to think that we're essentially the same, right? So things could be talked about and maybe resolved. But it's because we're the same that it's not going to work.

[There's a sad realization here.]

Anyone would kill to survive when it comes down to it, and kill for their families, and their way of life. I'd do it myself, if I had to. This war... is going to happen. That's why the Seers never have any other potential futures. Because it's happening no matter what. In every possible future. There's no escape. I understand that now.

[The dawn of Nightfall can't be prevented.]

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-20 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[Listening to James and his own findings gives Toki a little more hope again. Even if it's inevitable, the war, it doesn't have to be as bad if they can get even a few factions to consider another solution. It still seems a daunting task after everything he's read, but there's hope.]

Those from the Outlands, and even some humans, told me something like that. When I had the website up. They feel the same about humans as you did about the Outlands. Rare exceptions and as a whole, evil. Nightfall may come too soon to do anything to prevent it when there's so many people on both sides who think that way, but it can't hurt to try. To maybe lessen the fallout. I agree.

[He closes his eyes at the mention of the Herald.]

It didn't have to happen like that. There was no point to it, just to keep the veil up, essentially. I'm sure that's why they did it, and not because of the Outlands encroaching. I'm still very against that, but I can't... I can't talk to a lot of people about it.

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-23 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[His suspicions have waned somewhat, and any further research would be just to have more information on everything.]

Yeah. I maybe started with like accusations based on fear and assumptions, and even now, I don't think we should be completely complacent with anything said and still be... considering other options if something changes in what the Seers prophecize as we get closer. Whatever we do learn might be important later.

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-08-23 11:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[It's sincere, and he's tried very hard to get to this point. It's nice to have acknowledgement that he's succeeded in his efforts somewhat. They've come a long way since their initial meeting, and one day, he'll be happy to work alongside James again.]