nebulochaotic | (no subject)

WHO: OTA
WHAT: Eglaf Annual Earth Day Extravaganza
WHEN: Friday, April 17, 2020 - Sunday, April 19, 2020
WHERE: All over Historical Downtown Eglaf
WARNINGS: The whole premise of Friday's event is dub-con, so...you know. There's that. If you feel your thread should have content warnings on it, please say so in the soonest possible comment subject line.

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got til it's gone?

Every year, the weekend before Earth Day, the city of Egalf has a three-day festival to celebrate centered largely in Historical Downtown. Eglaf was one of the first cities in Florida to pass Go Green laws and they're proud of their attempts as a city to reduce their carbon footprint. Each year, the line-up of events is about the same.

Friday night is a fundraising theme costume party, usually attended by any and all, featuring local celebrities and registered Displaced Supers along with raffles, meet and greets, autograph sessions, photo ops with Displaced Supers, local vendors, and more, located in Downtown Pride Hotel's ballrooms. This year's theme is "Getting In Touch with Nature." Party-goers will be turned away at the door if they're not in costume. No exceptions. Tickets can be purchased all week at the hotel or at the door. General admittance is $10 and admittance with dinner reservations is $25 per person. Group discounts are available; please call the front desk at Downtown Pride Hotel for details.

NOTE:This event is where things might get a little hinky this year. The portal being reawakened in January has been causing little issues around town, but the government mostly has this on lockdown. Unfortunately, it would appear that something new has made its way through. Earlier in the week, a small group of playful and mischievous fairies slipped through the portal. Learning of the Earth Day celebration and wanting very much to carry on its message, on Friday morning, locals and Supers alike might notice a sort of shimmer in the air. Spoiler alert: it's their version of fairy dust. Exposure to said fairy dust will have residents of Eglaf under the fairies' spell. They'll feel compelled to reduce, reuse, recycle, and be at the Earth Day fundraiser with bells on.

When the clock strikes eleven, though, that's when they'll decide to have a little more fun. Anyone still in their costume and within a five-mile radius of the hotel will believe themselves to actually be their costume or, in some cases, they will become their costume. So, if someone comes to the party dressed as a tree, they should be prepared to stand very still and be very silent while swaying in the wind for the hour during which the spell will take hold. This spell will last anywhere from 1 to 24 hours.

Saturday, there will be a parade featuring giant balloons, floats built by local businesses, and Displaced Super appearances. The parade will begin at 10:00 am and will follow the usual path down all of Main Street from Historical Downtown up to the upper east side before returning back to Historical Downtown. Typically, this parade runs two to three hours in its entirety. Then, Saturday evening will kick off the Earth Day Film Festival, where locals and Displaced Supers alike are invited to the Downtown Green, weather permitting (or the Oakdale Theater, if not) where the stage will be hidden behind a giant screen onto which Eglaf Community College short films will start things off at 7:00 pm and, by 9:00 pm, everything from nature documentaries to summer blockbuster films will be played back to back until the last movie is scheduled to end around 11:30 pm on Sunday night.

All concessions purchased at official events this weekend will go toward furthering technological advances toward making Eglaf run on clean energy.

Come one, come all! Have a great time!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The more the night wears on, the harder it's getting to gauge when he needs to head out for fresh air to clear his head of the fuzzy gray blur that envelopes him when he's around people who are drinking alcohol. In this case, people who are drinking, in his opinion, too much alcohol, but then again, he might be being unfair; it might be just that there's so many of them in one place that it just adds up too quickly.

He's almost completely out of it by the time he realizes that he needs to get outside again and, by the time he does, he's practically fall-down drunk by proxy. Everything is spinning and, seriously, do people actually like feeling like this? This is fucking bullshit is what it is.

Caleb doesn't even realize that he's missed a step until he feels like he's about to fall and then someone grabs onto him.

Blinking with slow, intentional effort, he grabs onto the other guy and snorts out a laugh. "Jesus, fuck, you're my hero," he laughs...and laughs...and laughs a little more. "Oh my God, I hate it," he slurs stupidly when the giggles start to settle a moment later. Caleb takes a deep breath, tilting his head up toward the sky as if willing the sky itself to flush out this empathetic intoxication. "Thanks, man," he adds, sounding a little less inebriated.

He keeps his hold on the other guy for another long moment, clinging like he's a little afraid he's going to fall over — he is, actually, a little afraid he's going to fall over — but after some fresh air, he starts to slowly come back into himself. He wants to go home and, seriously, fuck this party, but on the other hand...he feels like he should stay?

Sighing, Caleb scrubs his face with both hands. "Why can't anyone have a party without liquor? Seriously, is that a thing? It should be a thing."

"No problem, man," he verbally waves away the appreciation as no big deal. He doesn't want to let him go until he knows the other guy can balance himself properly. "You good?" he asks, a clear-cut level of concern in his voice.

He shakes his head, "I don't think people know how to do that," he admits with a soft chuckle. "At least, if any of the parties I've been to are anything to judge by, anyway."

Shaking his head a little, Caleb reaches for something more stable and not-a-person to hang onto. He's not sure how long it'll take for it to wear off; it's different every time. It depends on how much the people around him were drinking, usually, and what for that matter.

"No, but I will be in a few minutes," he mumbles. "I didn't drink anything," he adds, his words stumbling clumsily together. "You prob'ly don't believe me, but I didn't."

He knows how it looks. In a few minutes, he hopes, it won't look like that anymore, but for now? Caleb knows. "That's lame. You can have a fun time without getting stupid drunk, I don't see the appeal. This feels like bullshit."

Scott lets his arm fall away from the guy when he grabs onto something a little sturdier to steady himself. He still keeps an eye on him, just in case, but he does seem to be a little better than he was a few minutes ago.

"I'll stay with you, til we're sure you're good." He assures him, smiling gently. "No, man, I believe you. We're literally in another universe where people with powers are seen as celebrities. Anything's possible." Though, he is curious how the guy could seem so fall-down drunk if he hadn't had a single drop of booze himself.
"You definitely can, but-- I dunno. People like it, for whatever reason." He shrugs. "I don't really get it, either. I've never even been drunk-- can't get drunk now, actually." But oh, how he had tried. Stiles was plastered that night, as bad if not worse than this guy is right now.

Caleb closes his eyes and takes a moment to be more intentional with his breathing, taking in slow, deep breaths and letting them out slowly a few seconds after taking them in. It helps him clear his head and center himself. Some of the fuzziness starts to fade away from his mind's eye and it feels a little less...gray and swimmy.

It's kind of weird having someone he doesn't even know caring enough to stick around until he's good to go, but it's nice, too. Reassuring. Anything's possible the guy says and then Caleb can feel pinkish prickles of curiosity poking into the gray fuzz pulling more clarity from the ether. Caleb latches onto it, focusing as much as he can on this other guy's curiosity to wash away everyone else's inebriation.

"You're not missing anything," he mutters and he sounds a lot more clear when the words finally come. Caleb opens his eyes and looks back at the other boy whose face is no longer kind of a spinning blur, which is nice. "It feels like shit, I promise," he adds, wrinkling his nose and standing up more straight, letting go of his stabilizer — a railing, as it turns out. He remembers Alyssa's advice, frigid but still somehow forgiving, next time you should lead with the empathy thing.

"It's because I'm an empath but I'm a really powerful one," he offers an explanation that he can feel the other guy kind of wants. Or at least, he thinks that's what he's curious about; that's the thing that makes the most sense to Caleb, anyway. "So it's not just emotional feelings, it's like...feeling feelings. So they're all drinking booze, that means I get drunk. It's ass," he sighs and holds a hand out to shake. "I'm Caleb. I don't think we've met, or at least not in person? Thanks for helping me out. I'd've busted my fucking face if not for you."

Scott is just that kind of altruistic person-- he'd help everybody if he could, and he makes due with just the people he can reach. He can see the other boy is getting his bearings, and that's a comfort, at least. "Yeah, it doesn't look so fun." he admits, giving him a sympathetic smile.

"Oh, man... that's gotta be rough." He's never experienced anything quite like that, but he can still empathize-- chemosignals give him all kinds of clues to people's intentions and feelings. But still. It's not the same as taking it in, and it becoming yours like this.

He smiles and takes the hand offered to him. "Scott, and it's no problem, man. You were pretty out of it, didn't want you getting hurt." His words are more genuine than a passing social nicety might seem, he actually means that.

A small smile crosses Caleb's expression. "Scott, okay yeah, we talked on the network, I think," he replies as they shake hands. Caleb lets his hand fall back to his side then. "Appreciate it. And yeah, it's pretty rough. I had a hold on it back home, but it's different without Adam here. He...keeps me green," he says, shaking his head a little and creasing his brow as his nose wrinkles. That only makes sense to him and he knows it. "Balances me out," he clarifies.

There's nobody here like that for Caleb. Back in the cities, there had been Richie, but he hasn't seen kid-Richie in a long time and adult-Richie doesn't balance him like he had when he'd been a kid. Caleb's best guess is that he's seen some shit in his forty years. Hell, he'd seen some shit in his thirteen years when Caleb knew him before.

Everybody here is too keyed up to balance him out. Vanya's a fucking mess and Laura's so high on life that, while it's a refreshing change from Adam's depression, it's just...a lot.

"I don't know if I'm gonna go back in, man. I can't decide if it's actually worth it."