PARTY PARTY PARTY

[decommission]

CHARACTERS: Everyone!
WHERE: The streets of Concordia
WHEN: Dusk til just before dawn on DAY 040
SUMMARY: IT'S A PARADE
WARNINGS: Add them to your top levels as necessary etc etc


As from the calendar:

Confetti! It's a parade! The annual Arista Parade, to be precise. Nominally a part of Aristana, the celebration of the ribbons of life, it's a holiday who's origins are nearly forgotten. Nowadays it's a big, raucous celebration pretty dedicated much entirely to drinking and partying. Almost all those in attendance will be wearing ribbons tied around their hair, their wrists, off of their belts and the edges of their sleeves. Pull one off, and you will be rewarded with a kiss - on the cheek, usually. The parade itself showcases a number of performers, costumes, and moving art pieces. It's route covers a number of the main streets of town (which will be closed, sorry traffic), and it lasts from dusk till nearly dawn on DAY :040. Have fun, if it's your kind of scene.

From the mods:

No notable NPCs are present at the parade - at least not in any official capacity. However if anyone wants to interact with a Concordian native, feel free to make up/interact with any randos you feel like!

Feel free to use this log for all of your parade day activities!


*moving art piece not included, original characters do not steal

Comments

[unfavoured]

Could you? [ She asks mockingly immediately after Lexa's words, a little more high pitched than usual as if to prove a point. So far, Parker has been the exact opposite. She has tried to avoid confrontation at every corner. She has tried hard to be left alone. It just seems it's a little impossible. She wonders if it's her incredibly friendly nature that brings people around to bother her.

In a way, it could be her antagonistic nature that does bring others around. Everyone needs a villain. She has always filled that position, more or less. She was held as a terrorist in public opinion, after all. Radical extremist for others. Although to be fair, recent years have seen her less radical, but she still has the thrive of a rebel. A rioter, heartbeat of a revolution. It's part of her nature. Never satisfied, never enough, there is always something to fight for - the truth, especially. And more often, Parker can find it. Or at the very least look for it. Here, that freedom, that drive, has been taken away. And she's in uneven ground. Her whole purpose has been taken away.

What do you do if you can't find purpose, no matter how much you search for it? Left adrift into nothingness. That is what it feels like. And a chest that burns and burns and burns with anger.

Parker keeps her head buried on her knees while Lexa speaks, before rolling her eyes. if she could roll them any harder they might just pop out of their sockets. ]

Sure. Got a map back home? [ ya mook. ]

[adamance]

We all want to return home. [Her words are flat, but there's still that underlying irritation. This is where she believes that Parker is selfish and self-absorbed, as if she feels her struggles are somehow different from everyone else's. But she does pause, giving a slight shake of her head.] I should amend that. Most of us wish we could return. We wish we weren't targets. [Those who think otherwise are people that Lexa feels she can't fully trust. (Angel aside, but Lexa still feels like there's a ticking clock there.)]

I do feel that you can feel free to ask to return. When your presence gets all your people killed, at least you can say you weren't around us. What I don't understand is why it is us or home. [As if there are only two options.]

[unfavoured]

[ Parker does nothing else but blink slowly, as if bored of her. It's not like she has made it easy to understand, but Parker doesn't care to be easy to understand. People simply assume she thinks that her struggles are greater than others. People simply assume that she thinks everyone wants to stay - to be fair, she has seem a bigger portion of people getting comfortable to this new journey in their lives - but the thing is, she doesn't. There is a massive difference between what people assume of her and what Parker actually has in her thought. But these are her own thought, this is her own mind, and she feels absolutely no inclination in sharing. What she thinks of others, of their struggles, it's for her own self. True, it's easy to assume it from Parker. After all, she isn't disclosing anything and when she does, explaining herself is a real problem. For someone so well read, Parker has no talent for words at all. Always brusque, always stand offish.

What people don't seem to grasp, nobody seems to grasp, is that she doesn't care. Even when she keeps hammering that in. It's really that simple. It's not that others are more or less. It's just that she doesn't care to collaborate with any of them. She doesn't play well with others, never did, and the few exceptions are back in her world. ]

I didn't get anyone killed. [ She says with an arched eyebrow. Not really trying to defend as much as she's criticizing wrong information. In fact, so far, she has actually saved at least two people. There is absolutely no link of her actions to any deaths. For all her bad behavior, Parker is actually not a murderer. She probably has one of the lowest body counts and actively avoids killing. ] And nobody here is "my" people. [ She quickly corrects her, again hammering that one in. ]

What you do or don't understand isn't my problem.

[ After all, she has never been one to explain herself to any of these people. Whatever they want to think about her, Parker doesn't seem to be very bothered by it. Her need to leave a mark isn't here. It's back home.]

[adamance]

[The misunderstanding is nothing short of irritating. Lexa is tempted to slam into her mind, to pry open its secrets, but they are not broodmates and she is not as telepathically talented as she'd like. Her gifts lie elsewhere, and it's why she's quick to hold out a hand to stop someone and hold them in place.

Still, she'll speak, she'll explain, and be done with it. This may be the last time.]

Many of us had our people attacked, and joining with the outreached hand was the last resort. We wanted to keep people safe. [That may not be all of them. While Lexa may be cold even on her better days, she could never abandon her people to die that way. Leaving was the only option. (And they would die anyway, as she has learned since.)]

No one here has to be your people. But you could prove to be more opportunistic. You come off as little more than a belligerent child. It is you who understands nothing, and your lack of understanding will, as I've said before, lead to your demise.

[And the more Lexa thinks about it, the more it's likely that she'll grate against the nerves of the wrong person, someone less willing to practice caution than her.]

[unfavoured]

[ Parker lifts her face again and stares at Lexa with a neutral expression, if somewhat tired, as finishes speaking-- apparently not caring for any of her words. Speech falling into deaf ears. Parker has never been much for building relations, not for the reasons one might assume (or, rather, not only for those reasons), so it's easy for her to be dismissive. Although, to be fair, the other woman is barely grazing any convincing arguments as far as she is concerned.

She leans her head on her fist, looking at her like an unimpressed cat. ]

I'm sure people love for you to speak for them. Maybe you should tell everyone how they should act. [ Her tone is dismissive, not bothered by her words or tone. She sighs, more bored than anything else, and averts her eyes over to the crowd. To her, Lexa is nothing more than the mirroring image of the iron fists that pushed their agendas from her own planet. Only less persuasive.

The thing is, just as Parker doesn't care to know people, people don't know her. They only see what they want to see and Parker is more than used to it. It never managed to bother her. Which is why none of Lexa's words scratch the surface of who she is, regardless of how much she thinks she is right. Her approach to her is so off the mark that Parker doesn't even bother to address it. Her opinions ricochet off of her as much as her attempts to goad her do. Parker really isn't very susceptible to people's opinions (not unless she regards them highly and considering nobody here has even come close to mild respect). There is only a small handful of impressions that leave her bothered, but she keeps quiet anyway - none of them have yet been uttered by anyone. People would have to try a lot harder and know her a lot better to scrape at it.

Regardless of whatever Lexa is trying to do, she isn't succeeding any time soon. Doing the same thing over and over, forcing anything upon Parker is a sure way to make her reject it. ]

Can you go now? Or are you still trying to get off?

[adamance]

I speak for you because you never speak for yourself. When someone meets the challenge of what words you do offer, you act as if they said nothing. You are nothing but a wall, albeit one that only wishes to belittle others because you realize how little worth you actually have to those around you. It does nothing but offer you some heightened sense of superiority, one that only exists in your mind. [She is irritated, not because she's wasted her effort, but because it feels natural to be aggravated when meeting someone whose heels are dug in so deep that she might as well just be poking her head above quicksand. Lexa does little to hide her anger, and she doesn't expect her words to hit any mark. No, she expects failure, because Parker needs to give off the impression of failure.

No matter. Even violence would solve nothing than to feed into the narrative that Lexa perceives she's decided to present to the world. Her jaw clenches and then she turns sharply to leave, inhaling the aroma of the nearby food once again.

It's not as if she intended to begin this conversation, but she certainly has no reason to engage ever again.]