[ME] [SE] don't go bacon my heart

Noe

Change my priorities

Noe happily accepted the ducks from Melita, but before they could get much further into conversation, Koa was not-so-subtly suggesting that they'd be trouble as friends and Melita and Kaisel were ganging up on him, and then suddenly there was food flying and spattering on shirts and faces and gods only knew where else, and Noe was hit by a fit of giggles the likes of which she hadn't felt in seasons.

"Aww, I dunno, Koa, I think that's a good look for you," she said innocently, pointing out the potato salad stain on his shirt. "Very avant garde. Here, let me help" she added, leaning over with a napkin - only to drop it at the last second to smear a handful of macaroni across her brother's cheek. "Oh, yup, that definitely helped," she said, a shit-eating grin on her face as she retreated, sure that there would be payback to come.

The taste of your lips is my idea of luxury

Kaisel

Haters on my back like a backpack

His smirk deepens as Melita joins in, an he does rather think this is a dangerous friendship forming after all. Koa seems less thrilled, more annoyed, which only punctuates Kaisel's satisfaction further. Except then he whips out his commander voice, and Kaisel does dampen slightly, wondering if he's gone too far after all. Pushing his cousin here had already been enough, perhaps he should be satisfied with that and not stretch the antics further. Who knows, maybe that shirt really meant a lot to him.

Except, damn—did he really have to say junior Dragoon?

"Sor—" he almost says, but then Koa's tune is changing, and Kaisel fucking fell for it like a dumb nice stupid considerate idiot. Beans spray against his face so suddenly he flinches, the apology withering instantly on his lips into a deadpan stare. Thankfully Noe gets Koa right back, and it is rather unfair that it's 3 on 1 over here. Grinning, which a bean sinks into his mouth during that momentarily distracts him, Kaisel picks up one of his uneaten sausages. It wriggles in his grip with such threat as his swings his gaze across the party, eyes wicked.

"FOOOOOOOOOD FIIIIIIIIIGHT!" he suddenly hollers, the tube of meat flung towards Sunjata with poor accuracy as Kaisel then scurries to duck behind a nearby table, plate of various foods held near his chest as precious ammunition. He pops up to fling a shrimp into the general fray of the party before ducking back down with an impossible to contain laugh.

Blowin' up I'm fucking flawless

The dangers of Torchline were not entirely dissimilar from the Greatwood. There were still deadly animals and plants, even those untouched by the Void. Threats of flooding in Flowerbirth. Bandits in the form of pirates. But there were also flying balls of the sporting variety, and flying food as well. Hadama followed Liam's gaze to where the youths had begun a battle of--

Well. He might not use the term 'wits' in this particular instance. He studiously turned his gaze away from the chaos, choosing not to perceive as Liam asked his question in return. "Mmh. We have been busy here as well," he confirmed. "All but one of the Family are now barred from Haulani. Our... gardening... has begun to yield fruit." But time was moving inexorably forward, and Hadama finished his kebab and contemplated the empty skewer. "But we are still lacking enough flowers to plant in all the gardens that need them."

Feeling the warm sun dappling through the shade of the palm and the laughter from the beach he gave a slight shake of his head and made an effort to lighten his expression. "I am sorry that I missed the Fiat Lux celebration. Did it go well?"

REMI

the bastion

& my heart ran away with me

Remi goes very still.

Flora’s voice is bright and teasing, the kind of sound that usually earns a raised brow and a fond huff—but he hardly hears her. The moment Theea is named, everything else fades. Her face, her voice, the shape of her smile—there’s something painfully familiar about all of it. Vai’s granddaughter. Ashetta’s daughter.

His heart stutters.

For a moment, it’s not LongHeat anymore. It’s a decade past, and he’s back in a clearing wrapped in ash and starlight, with Vervain’s hands warm at his jaw and Ashe’s wild laugh in his ear, but both had been lost to him in their own ways, even if their memories had always stayed tucked tightly around his heart.

A laugh threatens, but it catches in his throat. "Gods," he murmurs instead, and his voice is thick with too many things at once—grief, awe, gratitude, love. "You look—"

FOOD FIGHT! comes the shout across the sand.

Remi doesn’t flinch, doesn’t even blink. In a breath, wings erupt from his back—broad and sandy and feathered with soft golden edges. One sweeps instinctively out and around Flora and Theea, curving like a shield to catch a flying handful of potato salad with a wet splat.

With his arm still loosely braced in front of them, Remi exhales, sea-glass eyes never leaving Theea’s face. "You look like both of them," he says at last, his voice low and unsteady but warm, before reaching out for Ronin as if half expecting the Knight to topple over at any moment.

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Melita

Eating fire is your ambition
to swallow the flame down

The only travesties of a food fight were that eventually, some of it went to waste, so the Honeybee was careful in her selection of which to pilfer and throw. Launching only a meager portion of mac and cheese (it’d been so good), she strived to hit Kaisel right in the forehead, before feeling an almond plonk directly off her cheek, and then something hit her crimson hair.

Which wasn’t much of a matter; she’d been through far worse.

Then, deciding so many more needed to be involved, she glanced over to the much more ‘adultier adults’ in the vicinity, plucking a sausage and seeing if she could wing it towards Hadama with her regular precision.

to be lit up from within, vein by vein
to be the sun

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Very messy," Mateo agrees with Vesper, finishing his pineapple and licking the juice from his fingers. "And maybe multiple someones, if he fucks it up hard enough," he adds, resisting a sigh as he considers the vast array of things that can go wrong with the hand Koa has dealt for himself. No amount of get-well-soons and ice cream will soothe the burn left on his heart at this rate.

But apparently a food fight can, and while at times the botanist can definitely be counted on to join in with such chaos - especially if there's the chance to hose down afterwards - today, apparently, the idea has him wrinkling his nose. "You can tempt me and then some," he agrees, rising swiftly to his feet and brushing off his clothes as well, already inching back away from the brewing war.

"Not that I had anything to complain about with the view before. But yes, let us retreat to a safer distance." One where, perhaps, they aren't likely to be seen should anything more interesting come of the afternoon.

---

Mateo & Vesper out!

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

RONIN

the white knight

Ronin's head snaps up at the mere hint of Flora calling to them, the Knight setting down his tongs on the grill (after making sure nothing is aflame that shouldn't be) and raising an eyebrow towards her, half affectionate and half suspicious. He's sure she understands. His lips part to drawl some quip or another, wondering what it is she needs them to do, but Flora beats him to it with the words Vai's granddaughter all but etching through the air above Theea in neon letters, and damn it but Ronin almost bites his tongue hard enough to draw blood.

He glances from the Doubletake to the young woman she's introduced, and whilst even on an ordinary day Ronin would have had to look twice - perhaps three times - with that missing context already provided, gods, it's like he's standing in front of Ashetta again. The woman he'd called sister, missing and gone for so long it's like she'd only ever existed in a memory, send to pluck him down from the stars when fate had decided otherwise.

The food fight goes unnoticed by the Knight - the food in general has tumbled to the bottom of his priorities, and if Sunjata wants to take over the grill, by all fucking means at this point. He flinches only a little, and that's at the sudden shade provided by the spread of Remi's wings - a shade tha tmakes it all too obvious how Ronin has quite literally begun to radiate with warm light.

He doesn't topple as his husband grasps for him - not quite - but the flood of emotions will hit like charging bull. Shock, grief and elation all fight for purchase, until Ronin finally pushes his sunglasses up atop his head. "It's been a long time since anyone called me that," he says, the smile in his voice at odds with the roughness of his tone. "How-- I mean, your mother - is she...?" Alive? Alright? Here?

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

Theea

there exists no mightier miracle than this:

I didn’t expect them to look at me like that.

Not like I was strange, or lost, or even familiar—but like I was something that had been gone for a very long time and somehow wandered back. It makes something shift behind my ribs, caught between being seen and being mistaken for someone else.

When Remi’s wings snap out, my breath hitches in surprise. Not from fear—more from the absurdity of it. A massive wing curling around us like a shield against airborne potato salad while two of the most powerful men in the world look like I just stepped out of a past they weren’t ready to remember. I glance at Flora, almost like I can anchor myself there, but she’s too close to the center of all this to be neutral ground.

Ronin is… glowing. Literally. Gods.

I swallow the nerves. Make myself stand a little straighter. My voice comes out even, if a little tight at first. “She always said the maternal genes were strong,” I offer with a faint smile, one hand ghosting up toward my hair, then dropping.

When Ronin asks about her, his voice barely catching, the smile fades a little.

“She’s alive,” I say, not dancing around it. “Just… afraid. Somewhere in Torchline, I’m sure. I couldn’t tell you where. It’s… complicated.”

My fingers tighten a little around the straps of my backpack, its weight comforting. I look between the two of them again, then square my shoulders like I have any right to feel solid in front of them.

“I’m Theea,” I say simply. “I’ve wanted to meet you both for a long time.”

to feel.

you say, "come over, baby, i think you're pretty"
i'm okay, i'm not your baby

“S’not that kinda playin’ nice, Nova.” Caly chirps to her sister, her gaze flitting over toward her twin with a reassuring smile that’s equally as bright and vibrant as it is sharp. They’d talked about it already, there wasn’t anything to worry about. But of course, she pouts, and Caly watches as her sister starts staring daggers at Mateo.

Wolfing down her burger, she nudges her sister with her elbow as a chime of a laugh leaves her. “He’s just fuckin’ around. We’re still number one, don’t worry.” She reassures her sister with a wink from the eye that boasts the star tattoo, before the shriek of FOOD FIGHT sparks up. She knows her sister well enough to know she’d be more than willing to participate, so the young attuned immediately moves into action – knocking the nearby table over and using it as a shield of sorts to prevent any retaliation from what her sister’s likely got planned.

Calypso

if you think i'm pretty, you should see me in a crown

Flora

As the first splatter of something saucy and suspicious hits the sand nearby, Flora narrows her eyes, instinctively stepping slightly in front of Theea and Sohalia. It’s not that she’s afraid of a little mess—in fact, on any other day, she’d be in the mess, wielding condiments like weapons and already halfway to stealing someone’s sandal as a shield.

But today isn’t about her.

It’s about Theea meeting her uncles. It’s about Sohalia not melting down every time Koa so much as breathes in her direction. And as Remi’s wing stretches out to shield them—majestic, golden, and absolutely excessive—Flora huffs and shoots him a grateful look all the same.

"Alright," she chirps, grabbing Theea’s hand and reaching for Sohalia with the other. "Let’s move before someone throws ribs at your face." Her tone is breezy, but herding them toward safety is a mission worthy of a queen.

She veers toward one of the buffet tables with admirable precision, scooping up a plate and efficiently piling it with the best of what hasn’t yet become collateral damage. "Introductions can totally continue somewhere a little less..." she glances back as a hunk of corn-on-the-cob goes whizzing by, "...militarized."

With food in hand and purpose in her stride, Flora steers the girls toward the far edge of the beach, where the breeze still smells like charcoal and sea salt but not like incoming danger.

---

Flora tries to steer Soh and Theea out of the food fight!

I trace the evidence, make it make some sense
why the wound is still bleedin'

Code stolen from Queen Sky

I don't want to wonder if this is a blunder

Things fucking escalate, which really Koa, you shoulda seen coming - you've known Kaisel and Noe all their lives, and Melita is literally a demigod of chaos. Hijinks were bound to ensue with the three of them together. Before he has a chance to pull back on the reigns Kai's hurtling shrimp and ducking for cover, and then tables are falling and corn is flying and fuck it, we ball.

Koa snatches up a container of mashed potatoes and settles behind a large beach umbrella, the pole providing him the same protection a palm tree might an elephant. Making sure there's nobody in crush range he knocks the thing over, peaking out from behind the rainbow ferrule in search of targets. And while normally he wouldn't rope in anyone who hadn't expressly volunteered, the sight of a not-so-vigilant Talyson is impossible to resist. Mischief glinting in his eyes, he hurls a handful of mash at the courier before ducking down again, hoping his friend won't immediately realize the source of the assault.

Koa

When I kiss your lips I want to sink down to the bottom of the sea

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

There’s an introduction, one of Vai’s granddaughter that has Sunjata suddenly stilling and staring at Theea too. All he can offer is a lopsided smile, crooked from the scar tissue, before he twists away to leave Remi and Ronin to greet her. He didn’t know Vai as well as they did, even if he still considered her a huge figure in his life since arriving here, but it’s a reminder of her passing, too, that he hadn’t been aware of until long after she’d been put to rest.

Of course, those thoughts only last a small amount of time, because in between the introductions, a food fight breaks out and people are scrambling, and a sausage is suddenly flung his way that smacks his bicep. Looking up in time to see everyone scramble and people leaving, the Flood summons a bit of water, snagging the discarded sausage and launches it with his water magic in a type of water cannon over toward Koa before he takes that as his out to get the fuck outta dodge.

---

Sunjata out! (But not before lobbing a sausage at Koa ;D)

SUNJATA

Noe

Change my priorities

Noe could have predicted the chaos that would ensue next.

Somehow remaining clean (for the moment) of any flying foodstuffs, the girl ducked behind the nearest table - sure to take her plate with her, which was full of all manner of barbecue delicacies. She’d managed to eat most of the burger, at least, but the rest of the food? Fair game for throwing. Her spork? The perfect catapult. Now that she was in position, she was well and truly dedicated to making sure that this game ended with everyone else covered in food and herself as clean as she could reasonably stay.

A spoonful of potato salad was lofted towards Melita, who also seemed to have avoided the worst of the food fight thus far, and then a bit of baked beans made a trajectory into the fray at large. She didn’t know many people here aside from their little group, so she aimed at random, giggling all the while, and hoping to add to the general chaos of the war.

The taste of your lips is my idea of luxury

Sohalia

FOOD FIGHT, came the war cry, and Soh turned to regard the scene before them with a somewhat bemused expression. She’d been hanging back from Flora and Theea, filling a plate and beginning to munch on a bit of sausage as introductions were made. She hadn’t been particularly aware of Theea’s lineage (and nor was she now) aside from that it seemed to have some great impact on the rest of those gathered. She simply stood aside and waited, content to eat her food and wait.

Suddenly, Flora was shepherding she and Theea away from the antics of those gathered, narrowly missing a bit of macaroni that flew through the air next to her head. Soh followed along with her own plate, eyes wide at the chaos that had taken over this section of the beach. She’d be glad not to be included in this particular form of debauchery, thanks very much.

there's no life without you here