EVENT: THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS

[cuddlemods]

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.

Comments

[knifekit]

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."

[quinientos]

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."

[knifekit]

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.

[quinientos]

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.

[knifekit]

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."

[quinientos]

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."

[knifekit]

"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.

[quinientos]

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.

[knifekit]

"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."

[quinientos]

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."

[knifekit]

Billy rolls his eyes, knowing that grin but finding it comforting at the same time. Billy isn't a fan of being alone, anymore. Having someone around, even if it's not Goody, will be nice, especially one as distracting and distractable as Vasquez. "Normal cigarettes?" Billy asks, afraid for the answer, shaking his head irritably. "Opium?"

Billy wonders if the other 5 of the group even realized what was really in those cigarettes he and Goodnight often shared.

[quinientos]

Vasquez snorts with a derisive look on his face. "Good luck trying to find opium somewhere here. It's a drug now, one that they don't let people have so easy," he says with a nod of his head, like he's trying to get Billy out of trouble.

That said, if he can find it, then Vasquez wouldn't mind knowing where the source is. "You should just do what I do. Smoke and drink until the edge is off," he advises, taking back his cigarette to take a long inhalation.

[knifekit]

"I try to avoid drinking too often." Given Goodnight drinking like a fish, it paid for Billy to remain sober and able to drag Goody to their room when they're done with their meals and finished gambling. "I'll find something for us since you haven't." Because Billy is not spending his entire time here in Cadelle without something to help him sleep and keep his own nightmares at bay. Booze just makes him mean.

[quinientos]

Even as Billy talks about not drinking, that means he reaches out to take back the bottle so he can appreciate it, cigarette in his hand. "In that case, leave it to me, I can drink enough for the both of us." Of course, he gets chatty and touchy and a little flirty (and inappropriate) when he gets too drunk, but Billy will have to get used to it.

"Don't get arrested," he warns. "This place is about good deeds, remember? Stealing drugs isn't so good."

[knifekit]

"Then I'll just have to buy them." Billy replies drily. There's a long list of things Billy has stolen, but opium had never been one of them. He'd started buying when Goodnight started needing, and by then Billy had enough money to simply walk into the Chinatown of whatever large city they were near and procure. "I don't plan on making a fuss." He just doesn't want to be sober, something Vasquez seems to understand in spades.

[quinientos]

Vasquez snorts and gives Billy a look that says he wishes him good luck, but he also doesn't think he's going to succeed, even if Billy Rocks typically does very well at everything else he tries. Maybe not so much this, and if he does manage to find it, then all the luckier.

"It's different times," he warns. "Look at the awful noisy thing we just came from."

[knifekit]

"People will always have needs and people will always supply." Billy responds, somewhat cryptically as he begins their trek back to their quarters, still unused to the noise his boots make on cement rather than gravel. "Half the booths off the main road haven't gotten your message." Though Billy gets the idea that Cadelle rarely hosts events such as this, and rarely with such a free abundance of substances.

[quinientos]

Vasquez still thinks that maybe Cadelle won't have the large opium trade that Billy's hoping for, but maybe he's just been avoiding the seedy parts of the city for too long. Following after him, Vasquez adjusts his hat, button down shirt over a white t-shirt, though he's still in his old trousers.

He's made some amendments to modern life, but not the boots. Never the boots, never the hat. "There's parties like this. There's also strange things that happen at them," he warns. "Like wishes coming true or liquids that can make things happen to you."