cuddlecity | EVENT: THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS

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EVENT: THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS

EVENT: THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS.

It's (gonna be) May. Make no mistake: winter may have come, but it’s nowhere to be found these days. The gentle, balmy breezes and afternoon rain showers of March and April have given way to a confident May spring — these days, it’s warmer than ever, with barely a cloud in the sky to shield adventurers from the bright rays of the sun. As the mercury rises in the thermometers around town, so does the activity levels around the grassy banks of Golden Park in the center of town.

The construction’s slow-going, but by the end of the second week, it’s clear this is no ordinary block party in the city of Cadelle. Anticipation is buzzing all around town, and anywhere you go, you might find yourself faced with inquiries from excited locals wanting to know your plans for the upcoming weekend. After nearly a year of low-key family-friendly festivals, it may seem practically impossible to imagine anything but happening in this saccharine city… but clearly, something big is coming.

Luckily for curious citizens, the answer comes bright and early on a warm Saturday morning as the sounds of drums and bass echo through the city. It’s time for Eden, and make no mistake: this is definitely not the kind of shindig recent arrivals to the city might be familiar with. Parents are encouraged to bring their children to the city’s community centers, where special programs will be available throughout the day, or to a private sitter (though finding one last minute might be a challenge this time of year) because this celebration isn’t exactly what one would consider wholesome family fun.

No, Eden is something altogether very different — though, to be fair, it typically doesn’t happen here. It’s a festival that usually happens in one of Cadelle’s neighboring cities, a summer experience that typically means a weekend’s getaway to a city that’s a little less … shall we say, predictable? But the recent rain storms and other weather calamities have left many of the area’s better venues in ill repair, meaning a last minute change of venue was an unfortunate requirement. Good thing Mayor Drake’s entertainment budget can accommodate such things, right?

Should you come out to explore this brave new world, be sure to heed the warnings of the festival organizers’ brightly colored posters: pack lightly, and come prepared to Embrace Your Eden!

▸ During the day, music pumps from speakers lining sidewalks and the edges of the park’s grassy slopes. It’s unapologetically loud, the sort of volume that can hardly be ignored — better instead to embrace it and let it carry you away. Maybe you want to dance to the beat? There's more than enough space on the park slopes to move to the music. Or maybe you’d rather dive into the nearby Blue Springs, hoping that the sound might be a little muffled underwater? It’s the perfect weather for it either way, with blue skies and barely any clouds to mar the view. Be sure to claim your favorite spot, though!

▸ If you’re not quite content with lounging, there are plenty of pop-up shops, booths, and tents available to peruse, with everything from free food and drinks (yes, we said free) to unique clothes, art, and home decor for purchase. If there’s something you’ve been craving or trying to find that’s not quite as wholesome as Main Street in Cadelle might like to offer, you’re likely to find it here… and if you can’t, well, there’s always the tents in the back. You know the ones. They’re in a little darker… dare we say, shadowy place? Of course, you shouldn’t go there, but maybe you’re feeling particularly brave.

▸ Throughout the weekend, different themed parties are held in various venues around town. The Ballroom Hotel, for example, hosts a masquerade-themed cocktail party on the first night of the festival. It’s a popular spot for those that prefer a little more personal space, or for those who like to enjoy a quieter nightcap after a day of summer fun. If you’re looking for somewhere a little more lowkey, try the back patio at Paco’s, where free margaritas and an oversized salsa bar spice up the night for anyone who’s willing to show a little skin.

▸ The end of Eden is marked with Night Lights, an explosion of day glo paints and bodies pressed together in one seamless party. When the lights go down, it’s a chance to get brave and do things you might not dare to do by morning light — and we don’t just mean with a paintbrush. Come dance, mingle, make a new friend... or "friend". Nobody's judging.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. Eden only lasts but one short weekend, and once it’s gone, the city’s left to pick up the pieces in its wake. For those that opted to skip the festivities — or even for those that went all-out — the administration is more than willing to compensate anyone who might be willing to help clean up the mess. After all, it might take more than just a little magic to keep our city beautiful…

Feel free to sign up for clean-up duty. Or don’t. It’s your Eden..

Coachella, basically. Glastonbury. Your favorite grungy, questionable-safety festival has come screaming into town, and it's high time to make some summer fun. Feel free to play around with any of the concepts presented, or do something totally wild and new — it's up to you! If you'd like to invite the entire city to your own private rooftop party or plan something intimate for two, be our guest. Just clean up after yourself... or don't. Whatever. It's your party.

If you have any further questions specific to this event, we encourage you to ask away on our QUESTIONS COMMENT here in this post. If you have general questions, or prefer a more private venue, our GENERAL INBOX (and SCREENED INBOX) is always available for you. In addition, if you've got an idea for a future event, feel free to drop us a line at our EVENTS SUGGESTION POST.

Go get weird. We'll be here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Vasquez raises his brow, tipping his head to the side, not sure what Billy was going to say, but pretty sure that it wasn't going to be very positive. "I didn't think you could go anywhere without him," he replies bluntly, seeing as how that's pretty much what he'd figured. "It's okay," he charges forward.

"No one but you is here from home, not since Faraday went back," he says, finally finding them a quiet space. Once they're there, he lets Billy have the liquor so he can have a smoke.

The liquor is more than a welcome distraction and Billy begins to knock it back just as quickly as he had in the bar. Faraday being here... Well, Faraday may have gotten on Billy's nerves more than a few times, he was also a welcome distraction, a loud voice to drown out the din. Besides, any friendly face is welcome among a sea of strangers.

But it is still Faraday, so Billy counts his blessings carefully.

"Did he take the gatling gun?" As Vasquez is blunt, Billy is sharp, his tone jagged but unrelenting, needing to know this answer above all else.

Vasquez gives Billy a mildly surprised look, but then he remembers that it's not stupid to be asking that. He remembers how it had gone quiet in the steeple, no more voices or shots once Faraday had made the ride. "He did," he agrees, a sober note in his voice.

"But, after..." He shakes his head, a mirror of how he'd reacted when Sam had asked. "I went and checked, but, there was nothing." He stares at the match he lights, a badly timed moment, but he quickly lights up and then shakes it out. "They said they would bury the bodies, when we left."

"Who survived?" Not he, not Goodnight, not Faraday. That least four possible survivors and if his wish is granted, then they will have Goodnight there to ride with them out. Billy knocks back another long drink, letting the other smoke in peace for a moment so not to think of such grim matters.

Billy's own death is secondary. He's here now, and that's all that matters. For Goody, Billy will do a lot, even this.

"Me," he says, "With a shot through the arm," he adds, tapping the space. "Sam and Red, I think untouched," he admits, given that when they'd been riding from Rose Creek, neither seemed to have the issues that he did. "I gave Jack to Teddy, then we left."

Then he'd made a wish, dreading going back to the life he'd been living before and, well, here he is now. He watches Billy drink as he smokes, wondering how it feels. "What's the last thing you remembered?"

The last thing Billy remembers is sitting in that bell tower, staring at that flask of Goodnight's, knowing he was going to die alone and that Goodnight was going to die alone too. He remembers the pain, whiting out every last thought until those last moments, where the air in his chest had been so hot he'd felt like he was on fire, but Goodnight--

"They turned the gatling gun to the steeple." Billy informs, monotone, resolutely not looking at Vasquez as he informs the other. The alcohol is suddenly sour in his mouth, and a muscle in his jaw jumps. "We could have taken cover in time, but Faraday would have been caught if we had." Billy can see the burnt, charred lumber around him, the sand bags, the broken railing that Goodnight had tumbled through. He'd fallen off the church roof, into the graveyard. Goodnight deserved something better than that.

"There isn't much to remember after that."

"I know," he says, evenly, because he'd heard the shots stop after the Gatling had been turned towards it. He knows he probably owes his life to that, because he'd been out of ammo and they had turned up, before Faraday had finished the task.

He doesn't apologize, though, even if it probably would have been better off being the one who went, because at least then someone could take the price on his head. "I was here, just when I was riding out," he says. "No Sam or Red," he admits.

"Just Faraday, then you," he says, reaching out to pat his back to congratulate him, as if this is something to be proud of.

Billy scowls at the touch, but doesn't jerk away from it as he normally would, though schooling his reaction takes more effort than he would willingly admit. Taking another long drink from the bottle of liquor, Billy gives Vasquez a cold look, his teeth so slightly bared in what couldn't, even charitably, be called a smile. "And if I have my wish, Goody." Billy isn't in the habit of trusting others, but in the situation he'd been in, there hadn't been much of a choice.

Vasquez hadn't thought that you could do something like that. It's clear from his face that he's curious about this, and he knows he's about to be rude. "What was your wish?" he asks, not sure if there's supposed to be a rule that you don't talk about those things, but Vasquez doesn't care.

He'll tell Billy all about his, even though it's not so personal, because anyone who knows his situation could probably guess.

Billy's used to a different sort of rude than the one Vasquez displays now. Usually it's a lot of broad statements about his heritage, his station, and his role in society. This? Billy can handle this. Goodnight was hardly tactful when you got past the facade of his silvered tongue. Turning away, Billy offers Vasquez a quick raise of one of his shoulders, as if to brush off the question as obvious. "For Goodnight to survive."

Vasquez raises his brow, thinking that it's a very big wish. It's also one he's not sure was worth it, because he'd ridden out of town. Of course, maybe back in Rose Creek, Goodnight had sat up and suddenly continued about his life, but...

"You really think he'll want to live without you?" Vasquez asks. "Didn't he say, where he goes, Billy does? What if he's only miserable now because he's there and you're here?"

"Then he will be alive." Miserable, overjoyed, furious-- doesn't matter, doesn't matter how Goodnight feels about survival, so long as he survived. Maybe he'll ride on and find another like Billy, maybe he'll stay with Sam Chisholm and remain at his side this time, maybe he'll stay at Rose Creek and live as a hero instead of an angel of death. Billy doesn't know what Goodnight will do, but as long as Goodnight continues into the next day, that's all Billy cares about. A man like Goodnight deserves a better death than the one he got.

So Billy looks at Vasquez again, his brown eyes betraying no remorse or give in the stance he's taken, just firm determination. "Simple."

Vasquez raises his brow, not understanding, maybe because he's never felt like this about another person. Even as much as he might have been on the edge of it with other people, he's still too selfish to ever make a wish like this. "I don't think it's this simple," he replies.

"He's going to be miserable, angry. What if he decides to look for things that will bring him death, because he has his own wish to be closer to you?" he points out.

Billy eyes Vasquez after a moment, turning away to take another long drink from the bottle of alcohol they have. He wishes he had cigarettes, something else to fill his time with as he gathers together what he wants to say. The points Vasquez makes are valid, but unnecessary; Goodnight and Billy had this discussion many times, during their numerous close calls. But beyond that--

"You're making many assumptions about what our relationship was." and nothing Billy says betrays the truth, instead chiding and dismissive of having implications and hidden meaning thrown at him. Either Vasquez makes his statements in full or not at all because Billy won't answer them any other way.

Vasquez tips his head to the side, a dubious look on his face, because no, he doesn't think he is. "Don't think I'm stupid," is all he says. He's not about to come out and blurt that he thinks the two were fucking, even though he's fairly sure they had been, but even without that, you'd have to be blind not to see the friendship and the tight bond between them.

"You had something I'll never have," he says, with a shrug. "It's not a bad thing, to trust someone this much, have them in your life. Not for others, maybe. And, I'm just saying," he adds, as he smokes, "that maybe Goodnight won't be so happy with your wish."

Billy had thought the same as Vasquez once, that no one would be in his life that would become as close as Goodnight had. Fate has a funny way of proving people wrong, Billy has found, and Billy just tosses Vasquez another half shrug, "He won't be, at first." Admission, and Billy is helpless but to huff a bit in laughter as he imagines Goodnight's rants, his storming about when he thinks he's been wronged. Billy once enjoyed himself watching the other man vent about the slightest inconvenience as if it were the end of the world.

Never again.

"But he should have chance to live," Billy admits slowly, his words pried out and unwilling. Billy doesn't like talking about Goodnight's nature, the truth behind the facade Goody always wore around others-- others that weren't Billy. "After having overcome his fears."

Vasquez thinks maybe he won't be at all and then he'll wish Billy to life, then Billy will do it again, until all they're doing is making stupid wishes to be selfless instead of thinking about themselves the way that Vasquez has.

Flicking away the ash, he squints at Billy and thinks that it's stupid, even though he's not going to say it out loud. Not yet, at least. "You think he overcame his fears?" Vasquez snorts. "No, I think he just didn't want to leave you."

Billy glares at Vasquez again, his cheeks slightly flushed from the alcohol he's had so far. Reaching out, he snatches Vasquez' cigarette from him and shoves the bottle of booze in his hand instead. Taking a long drag from the cigarette, Billy looks at it irritably when he realizes there's no opium to be found in it. Weak.

"Stop making assumptions." Growled out.

Vasquez makes a face when he loses his cigarette, bordering on annoyed, but at least he gets liquor in return. He shrugs when Billy says it's an assumption, because maybe it is, but he'd seen the way they were. Even when he'd been piss-drunk he'd seen.

"How come you act like you don't want him to come back for you?" he wonders. "If I had someone who cared like that, I'd be bragging about it." After all, he's never had anything like that, he wouldn't know the first place to start.

Billy pauses.

He can remember all the times that Goodnight had come for him- when warrant officers tracked them down, when Billy was beyond battered only to have Goodnight come waltzing in with his tongue like the devils own- and Billy has to look away, not that he'd been looking at Vasquez fully anyways. This was different. Goodnight had run away only to return having seen the horror they were about to face and knowing they couldn't face it without him.

But he'd sought Billy out regardless, he climbed up that steeple and called out for Billy to join him. The memories of Goody teaching him distance shooting echoing between them, and the teachings paid off, picking men off in the far, far distance.

Then Goodnight fell off the church, and died alone, just as Billy had died alone as well.

"Goodnight does not believe he is a good man." Billy says after a moment, and all the anger in his voice is drained, instead there's something tired, aching, and hurt. "It is up to me to believe for him."

Edited 2018-06-02 22:15 (UTC)

Vasquez keeps nursing his liquor while he waits out Billy's silence, genuinely thinking that maybe it's something that he's going to have to get used to, because he's not used to silence. He likes noise, chatter, which had been why it had been so good to have Faraday always chattering in his ear.

This silence is new, and when he does speak, it's heartbreaking, in a way that he's not sure how to deal with. "So you believe in him and wish for him. At least he has someone like that. Most people in the world, they don't have that. He's lucky."

"He would do the same for me." Billy says, as quick as his knives, ignoring the fact that Goody isn't here and likely has never been here. It's likely he died too quickly to be brought here, Billy tells himself, because to think the man he's devoted so much of his life to would abandon him...

It's a useless track of thought, and one Billy won't entertain. Pulling back on the cigarette again, Billy looks at Vasquez before jerking his head to the side. "Let's get off the streets. It's still far too noisy." And Billy needs to get his mind out of the loop Vasquez has sent him into. Billy knows a surefire way to do exactly that.

Vasquez shrugs, because he doesn't know what Goodnight would or wouldn't do, but Billy clearly knows the man better than anyone else, so he's going to be the one to speak to it. Better him than others, though. "Where'd they put you?" he asks, curiously.

It'll be good to have someone else he knows here, even better once he finds out where Billy is staying.

"Gamma, floor five." Billy shrugs. He's barely been to his apartment, having never been used to having a place to settle, to claim. He misses his horse, the open sky, but he doesn't miss the bounty on his head. Eventually he'll grow used to the roof over his head, but wishes Goodnight was here to share that experience with him.

Billy smokes quickly, looking down at the cigarette questioningly before flicking the butt away, pushing from the wall. "You need something stronger than this weak tobacco."

Well, that's surprising.

Grinning, Vasquez finds that there's still things that can definitely make him very happy. "Same as me," he says, giving Billy a grin that can only be read as the fact that there's plenty of trouble ahead, given that Vasquez doesn't intend to let Billy have that much privacy.

"They don't sell anything other than tobacco here," he says defensively. "I have to go to a special store just to buy this instead of normal cigarettes."

EVENT: THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS

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