happy pride, etc

[papadopoulos]

“Uh, people were killed.”
“No one was killed at Stonewall.”
“No…body…was killed???”
_________________________________________________________

The café is looking much more colorful than it has in the past. Specifically, there are various flags draped on top of the walls – certainly it is much brighter than anything Enjolras would have cared to come up with. Directly behind the pastry case there is a rainbow flag, and scattered around there are a myriad of other pride flags. (Whatever they could scrounge up from the cupboards, basically.) There is also a small table set off to one side, with various types of beaded necklaces and colored bracelets lying atop it. There is also a small flier with descriptions and explanations of what the different flags represent. Explanations of pride in general will be freely offered, as well.

Dionysus has offered up his cd player, though instead of the same music from the party, it is playing songs from various queer artists. There’s a selection ranging from Bowie to Cole Porter to Billie Holiday, including more modern artists such as Lady Gaga, Mika, Queen, and Green Day. Apollo can be found near the music as usual; but he is currently engrossed in making more of the colored bracelets. He is seated at the table with a box full of friendship bracelet making supplies, wearing an artfully cropped version of this shirt, a hyacinth bloom set behind his ear. Dionysus is at a different table, wearing a knee-length sundress of pink, yellow, and blue stripes and one of the beaded bracelets Apollo is making, this one in yellow, white, purple, and black beads. He found a small facepainting palette with a few pride flag options and is willing to offer up his services if anyone happens to want a tiny flag on their cheek (or, well, wherever.)


Let us know if you want Apollo, Dionysus, or both for your threads!

Comments

[kadewest]

Kade walks in! "Hey, what's all this?"

[papadopoulos]

“Pride,” Apollo says cheerfully, looking up from his bracelets. He is very admirably not staring quite as much as he’d like to; but he is certainly appreciating the view. “Or, at least, it’s for pride. Figure a lot of people around here might not know what it is or why it’s important.”

[vineleaves]

“It apparently would be June right now,” Dionysus adds, “I mean, I know everyone arrives from different months and all, but by some estimates that’s where we’d be.”

[tallyyoungblood]

Attracted by the upbeat music, Tally wanders in. She gives Dionysus a friendly wave, but her attention is caught by the boy who looks closer to her own age. He looks like an ugly, but he does have a strange sort of glow around him.

"Hi! I don't think we've met. I'm Tally."

[vineleaves]

“Tally!” Dionysus grins and waves at her as she walks in. “This is my big brother Apollo.” He turns to Apollo, “Tally’s from a few hundred years in the future. There’s still bees.” This was obviously the most important takeaway from their first conversation.

[papadopoulos]

“Good?” Apollo blinks a little and gives Tally a slight wave. “Hey,” he says to her, stringing another bead on his latest bracelet. “It’s nice to meet you. Want a bracelet?”

[new_inglewoodblues]

Ragnelle ignores Apollo entirely and beelines over to Dionysus' table. She looks great. The last time Dionysus saw her it was winter and she was out of sorts, her blood slow and her general feeling at being awakened one that could be generously called "pissy". Now it's spring, and her hair is rich and lustrous and full of traveler's joy, budding and green; her skin and eyes are brighter, her presence breathes growth and life and reawakening.

"What dost thou?"

[vineleaves]

Dionysus grins as she comes in. "My dear! Oh, aren't you looking radiant!" He will give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek if she allows it. "How did your little house fare through the winter? Oh, this is my big brother Apollo." That last part is said very quickly, offhanded, and without taking his eyes off her. "We have so much to catch up on! You'll have to come by my garden some time soon, I'm sure all the little baby planties would love to meet you."

[temnota]

Drawn by the music, Aleksander curiously poked his head into the café. Upon seeing both Apollo and Dionysus, he smiled warmly and stepped inside. "What is all this?"

[papadopoulos]

Apollo literally brightens and gives him a wave. "A celebration, kind of! It's something from our world, figured we should share it here since it seems, uh...an appropriate place for that kind of thing."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot is really just wandering in for a cup of coffee in between his morning drills and his lunch with Susan -- he has a few other things to accomplish, and coffee would help. However, upon seeing that there is ... some kind of set-up, he comes to an abrupt halt, just inside the doorway, glancing around as if trying to figure out what's happened. All of the color, the music, has the effect of making him feel he's stumbled into a party that he didn't even know would take place.

[vineleaves]

Dionysus grins and waves at Lancelot. "Hello dear! Come in, we're celebrating! Have you met my big brother yet?"

[wickedwit]

Claudius has been rather distant, of late. More appropriately, he's been absent. He's put in his appearances, gone about his routines, had ordinary but shallow conversations with people. He's pored obsessively over the pages of his dossier, tried to pick through the web of connections and relationships he's mapped there. He's softly recited the names aloud to himself, starting with A. But nothing ever comes together.

Truthfully, he doesn't even know what problem he's trying to solve. All his skills are useless now, and he's begun to think none of them were ever particularly useful. Knowing every flirtation and friendship, every grudge and motive for violence, didn't give him the ability to predict what happened. It won't help him prevent it from happening again. It's easier not to try anything, to freeze entirely, until the danger passes. And it may never pass.

Absently, he thinks he understands the chemistry here. In times of crisis, the sympathetic nervous system floods the body with the neurochemicals necessary to either fight or flee. There was no place to flee from this particular threat, which was his own yawning grief and helplessness, so he fled himself. Now he only moves in his body as an actor pacing through an empty stage, detached from his own feelings. Today he wanders down to the cafe, to put in an appearance, to keep up a routine.

But the cafe is different, today. Claudius notices the colorful flags hung on high, like at an embassy, and listens to the sound of Cole Porter playing. I truly am never going to dance with that boy, am I? It's the strongest emotion he's felt in days, and he doesn't like it. But he feels briefly connected to himself again, as a thing that sees and hears, with a heart can be moved by music.

[vineleaves]

By the time Claudius enters, Dionysus has filled both of his arms with various doodles in the facepaint. He hops up and goes over to meet him in the doorway, wrapping him up in a tight hug and giving him a kiss on the forehead.

“Claudius! Darling how are you?” He hasn’t noticed anything is wrong yet, this is just, you know, how he is. Fortunately all of the body paint is dry enough that it shouldn’t smudge off on to any of Claudius’s clothes.

[lightbearinglord]

The shame has mostly receded, gentled by Claudius' fond teasing, the obvious fact that Grantaire framing his vandalism was a good-natured joke rather than anything more sinister. Lan Wangji still does not frequent the café, but that is a matter of habit rather than principle. His habits are askew recently anyway. He can't quite say why. There are some obvious reasons, but they feel intangible when he tries to reach for them.

Today, he is drawn in by sheer curiosity, an answer to the music piping from its doorway and into the hallway. He steps inside, hands tucked neatly behind his back, with a look of faint surprise, glancing around.

[papadopoulos]

Apollo-as-Lester looks up and gives him a cheery nod. "Hey, how's it going?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Now that he knows that Shen Yuan will live again -- Claudius explained what Magnus told him in sign, rather than speaking it aloud, wary of some danger he hasn't quite explained to Galahad -- Galahad feels less fluttering anxiety about leaving Claudius alone. It's the only reason he pokes his head into the café with a basket of black raspberry scones topped with a sprinkle of crystallized ginger and stops, arrested by whatever Dionysus and this other person he hasn't met are doing. He's looking especially androgynous today in the sheerish blouse Magnus picked for him and a pair of dark-colored skinny jeans, and his birthday earrings in (his gender may not be at all obvious to Apollo).

He sets the basket down on the floor beside Dionysus' table, drawn to the face-painting setup.

[vineleaves]

Dionysus is ecstatic¹ to see Galahad. He left him a basket as a thank you for the stars, but he hasn't actually seen him since then.

Galahad! Galahad thank you so much for the stars! This is my brother. Apollo. He points to Apollo.

"Apollo," he says out loud to get his attention, then switches back to signing. Come meet Galahad.


1. almost like he's the god of it, or something

[peaklordshen]

The CD-player, currently playing Mika's 'Grace Kelly,' starts skipping—life on the brink, life on the brink, life on the brink—and then one of the rainbow bracelets slides off the table and onto the floor.

[vineleaves]

“Apollo I think your cd is scratched,” Dionysus says as he gets up and takes it out of the player. He looks at the back of it — no scratches. He blows on it, maybe there was some dust? Then puts it back on.

[agula]

Drawn by the music, Qi Yan peers in to what appears to be some kind of festival. The decor is unfamiliar, but that's unsurprising. More unsettling is that she doesn't recognize either of the colorfully dressed men in the room. She has missed a lot during her long period of convalescence, and for someone as attuned to social structure as Qi Yan, she does not like not knowing people.

She enters and bows politely, addressing both men. "Please excuse my ignorance. What manner of celebration is this?"

((note for those who haven't met Qi Yan before - she uses she/her in her own narration, but presents as a man and expects people to perceive her as such))

[papadopoulos]

In fairness, Apollo currently looks a bit more like a boy than he does a man, seventeen and dark-haired and a little chubbier than he would really like to be, but he's still wearing a cropped shirt and tight shorts regardless. "Oh, hey," he says, waving at the new guy.¹ "It's, um, a thing we have in our world. A month for being proud of who you are without anyone shaming you and --sometimes, unfortunately, still fighting for equality that everyone should have." Not for the first time, Apollo thinks, Christianity was a mistake. "But explanations can come after introductions, I guess. I'm Apollo, and the guy with the makeup over there is my baby brother."


¹ There's a lot of new guys; Apollo just hasn't met everyone yet.

[futaille]

Grantaire is never away from the café for all that long, so of course he walks in, and looks around admittedly a bit quizzically while he heads to grab a drink. "Interesting choice of décor."

[vineleaves]

Oh look, it's Dionysus' Favorite Person(TM). "Étienne!" He practically runs over and gives him a hug and a kiss. "I found some face paint, do you want to play with it with me?"

Sure enough, his arms are covered in little designs.

[biteybaby]

At some point during the festivities, a word that here means, "the weirdest Pride celebration ever", it has fallen to either Auntie Sissy or Uncle Polly to watch Sunny Baudelaire. She can't remember which one is technically her guardian right now, but it doesn't matter much either way, as they are both in the same room.

She has been dressed in a festive outfit, has been given a festive beaded necklace (Auntie Sissy was very upset about this, but Sunny assured her she would not swallow any of the beads. She did not seem to hear her when she said this, and Uncle Polly had to mention how if Sunny chokes he can fix her, whatever that means), and is now sitting in a high chair with a roll of festive stickers, slowly peeling them off the paper backing one by one and placing them all over the previously mentioned festive outfit.