sixthiterationlogs | [Mingle] The First Official Meeting of the Young Adult Club

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[Mingle] The First Official Meeting of the Young Adult Club

WHO: Nida
WHERE: House 16
WHEN: Evening/Night Monday the 14th
OPEN TO: Mingle: Open too all young adults (22 and younger); Older may show up but expect a testy Nida.
WARNINGS: Young Adults Partying, Possible: Underaged drinking if people bring stuff. If your thread changes ratings, in subject line and DM me so I can update.

The message goes out over the Network Sunday evening.

'Young Adult Club, First Meet-Up/Party Monday night. First house after the Jail/Barn. Bring Snacks If You've Got Them To Spare.'

Invitation sent in general, The rest, now, came down to Nida. Good thing he had someone who knew how parties worked was right there too. Rinoa turned out to be a pretty good resource. He learned there were a few important things to do for a party. Three major things were needed: music, treats and games. Unfortunately they couldn't do much about the former, so instead Nida employed his housemates in trying to make sure the latter two were covered.

The Nibbles

The easiest person to go to about food turned out to be Seifer. Of the three of them the blonde had somehow ended up as the defacto chef of their house when it came to important things like this. What this meant was a variety of easily made food, things like a plate of half-dollar sized pancakes for easy munching or dipping into other things, fried potato edges, even a quiche that Seifer had managed to whip up, not that Nida even recognized what the whole thing was. While it wasn't as impressive a spread as the New Year Eve party had (or perhaps even the forge gathering) it was clear that the three had done the best they could with the skills two mercenaries and a formerly sheltered young woman had between them. Hopefully treats from other people would help with the spread. Personally, Nida was hoping to steal some of the fritatta Seifer had made in their cast iron skillet, but guests came first of course.

The Games

Games. What even were party games? For that one the center spotlight had gone to Rinoa's planning efforts. Nida had scrounged in the inn's shared supplies, borrowing a set of playing cards and a Jenga set. Not that he really knew what the latter was. The cards went to the dining room table with some extra chairs borrowed from an unoccupied house, the Jenga onto the coffee table, and Rinoa's peakitten Julia got shuffled into her room to prevent her from knocking over the wooden blocks yet again. Nida was tired of rebuilding.

Introductions

They're all new here, they don't all know each other, so Nida and Rinoa encourage people upon arrival to start out simple. And all you have to do is say your name and three facts about yourself. Or, if you're feeling mischievous, two truths and a lie. Can people guess the truth of the matter about you? Or do they already know you well?

Quite Spaces

Frankly Nida wasn't sure how he felt about opening their house to so many people, and with the living room, dining room and kitchen all prepped for use, he realized there was one other thing people could need. A place to talk quietly or just have group games. As he was the only one of the three of them that didn't have much in the way of property and could give up the whole concept of privacy for a bit, the back bedroom ended up having a note pinned on it with a kitchen knife.

'Quiet Space for Your Use - Do not have sex in my bed please'

With his staff stored in the basement and his tiny journal and pencils stored out of sight on top of the standing wardrobe, the room was perfect for anyone who just needed to cool down. Or have a private conversation. Good thing the house has electricity because that could be used long into the night.

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"That silly boy," Rinoa shook her head, but there was something very soft in her smile, glancing toward Seifer. "He works so hard to act like he doesn't care about anything." The thing was, Rinoa was great at looking through people, and she saw through that the very first time they ever met. And with her, on the whole, he was himself after that. He tried to be tough, but it didn't last for long. She knew why he did it. "I think he's doing better here, about opening up."

Rinoa turned her attention back to him. "You really should give yourself more credit, Nida. I'm just going to keep telling you nice things until it sinks in." Even if it took a decade or two. She was tenacious! She smiled about his reference to Billy and raise an eyebrow. "Twister, huh? It sounds ... what is it, like you twist around and see who can twist best?" Just taking from the general assumption of the name.

"He cares though, we know it," Nida smirks, shaking his head as he looks back in that same direction. The kitchen. Where Billy had disappeared to. Don't screw him, Almasy, or he will demote you from brother so fast. "And yeah, he's doing well. I'm sure his Poppa Stark will help with that."

But the other part, the compliment to him? Nida doesn't even respond to, just brushes it off. Rinoa builds him up, Seifer keeps his head from getting too big. It's a pretty good system for him, for now. But with the game he smiles with more mischief than she would have seen out of him than ever before.

"Big mat with colored dots. Spinner wheel with colors and body parts like hands and feet. Everyone playing has to put the body part spun on the color sun. Fall or take your body part off of a thing before you're supposed to, you lose. I'd be kick ass at that."

"It's nice, having a positive role model for him. Mr. Stark seems to understand him." Rinoa still had an impossible time calling some people anything but polite names. Mr. Ms. Dr. Her father's formal upbringing of her was too firm within her mind. "I spoke with him at the party and he's very aware of what he's doing, what he's offering Seifer. It's intentional." Not just giving him a place to work because he needed the person, no he was doing it to help when he saw a lost young man.

Rinoa's eyebrows went up at that description. "That sounds kind of naughty. We'd all be wrapped up in one another." It didn't mean she was against it, just that it sounded like a party game for a different kind of party. She wanted to tease him about that being what he and Billy wanted to do anyway, but she was being good! So good. "Don't count me out, I had dance lessons growing up, I can bend too."

Well, it's polite enough in Nida's book, given the fact that Seifer's all but been adopted by the guy, whether he knows it or not.

"Part of that awareness of what he's offering Seifer may in part derive from... some things I said to him," Nida admits with a shrug. Sure, he can tell Seifer that he threatened Stark. But Rinoa? No chance in hell. "I don't think he likes the idea of Garden much. I can respect that."

Naughty? Nida laughs, because wow, hearing that word from her is hilarious. He's grinning stupidly, but that may be from touching Julia with bare skin. "Okay, it's only naughty if it's with someone you want to get naughty with, Rin. Like, say, Billy. But I imagine that there is more collapsing over other people because not everyone is going to be coordinated, or they'll be competitive and trying to undermine one another."

"I don't like the idea of the Garden much either, now that I know more about it. And while I love all of my SeeD dearly, it doesn't take a genius to see there are flaws in the system." Seriously though. Major flaws in the system. "But it's not on you guys. All you did was your best. If he wants to rant about the adults in our world, well, he's not going to hear any arguments from me. He was super upset when he heard about them freezing me."

Which she agreed to, but still! And then Rinoa hear that from him and she grinned at him ear to ear. "I'm sorry, did you just say you want to get naughty with Billy?" HA.

Yeah, he's coming to terms with those flaws.

"I mean, you can understand the rational behind it, but you haven't done anything to warrant it."

Yet. But Nida doesn't expect she will. As for the other thing, he sorta just shrugs. Yeah, he did. What are you going to do about it?

"How do you deal with a one-sided thing? Seifer's advice wasn't... the most useful. And I have a feeling that you were the major moving factor in that relationship."

"Of course I understood why, that's why I agreed to go with them, but yes, I can see why someone wouldn't like a group of scientists unilaterally deciding to freeze a teenage girl in space forever." When you say it like that, it does sound like something a lot of people would have a problem with. Even with the mitigating factors.

Rinoa smiled faintly. "Squall was ... an accident, honestly. I didn't even like him at first. We snuck up on each other that way." It wasn't a whisked away romance, it had a lot of bumps on the way. "For me it wasn't as difficult as you'd think. I just knew I wanted to be around him." It was easier to talk about Squall, her hand immediately going to her necklace thinking about it. "I wanted him, yes, but Squall makes me feel calm, safe. It's as good a foundation for friendship as it is romance. I think if it's one-sided you'll just have to be patient and wait for it to wear off into friendship. You can't make yourself stop."

Rinoa paused and then glanced up at him. "...what did Seifer say?" She almost was sorry to ask, since she was literally his experience, and it wasn't great.

Yeah a lot of that sounds like how he feels about Billy. And this is good advice. Patience. He can totally manage that. Better for them both. And he gets to keep his friend.

“Basically? Don’t be a coward,” Nida smirks. Good advice were he not, of corse, certain that Billy wouldn’t want him. “That I shouldn’t assume what he feels.”

Rinoa was not surprised to hear that, so it did make her smile. "I agree that you shouldn't assume how he feels. But maybe it is better to give it time. For all you know, the freshness of the crush could wear down on your end too, making it easier in general." She suspected that it would not be the case, but she also thought in general it was good advice not to hurry. "And maybe time will have you both end up in the same place." Romance or friendship. Either one.

"We both just want you to be happy, Nida. That's why we meddle. Seifer included."

“Yeah. How about you don’t meddle,” he suggests, but his voice is warm there. “Advice is one thing, but meddling is something else. Garden did that. My whole life defined for me there. I think maybe some things you have to figure out on your own.”

If only he had thought to forbid Seifer from meddling, which was what he was up to in the kitchen.

“And Rin? Thanks for telling me what it was, last time. I don’t think I would have fully realized it otherwise.”

"Feelings are confusing. Sometimes another person sees it more clearly. I didn't realize I had them for Squall either until I was deep in it." And by then it was too late. They had a lot of other things going on. "Honestly Squall and I only just got together, when I was here. We hadn't even been on a first date. We had the feelings, yes, but ... no real attempt was made yet." So it was very early with the two of them, for her. Rinoa thought it comes off as them having figured it all out and settled in, but that was not the case.

"Seifer and I ... well, we began to talk ... a little? About what happened. It didn't go great." Rinoa was not the type of person to just let things lie though, when she thought healthy communication was the best way. "We never technically broke up, and he doesn't think he has the right to be upset about Squall, considering part of what broke us was what the sorceress did to him." She hadn't talked to anyone about this, and at the moment, Nida was the only on who understood the puzzle pieces. "I think it'll take awhile before we unpack what we went through, together and separate. I just wish I could make him feel better."

"You and Squall work out," he promises softly. "At least, from my point in time. I'd tell you about the birthday party you threw for him, but I don't want to be responsible for those ideas via stable time loops."

But the Seifer thing... That, he... just has to take in stride. That issue requires a lot more social education than he had. How is he.... supposed to respond to that information? What? Can you see the deer in the headlights look he's wearing?

"So you were... I mean, were you cheating on him? Because at that point, yeah Sorceress aside..."

He's floundering.

"Rin, I don't know how to take that."

Rinoa flushes a little, because when you put it like that. "Physically, no, but emotionally, yes." She and Squall were very chaste up until the point all of it was over and she and Seifer went their opposite ways. But emotionally she fell in love with someone else when she and Seifer hadn't broken up. "It's not like we could have had the break up conversation when both of us were being possessed by an evil entity." If he was a part of the team, she would have told him, but he was with the enemy at the time.

She feels awful. There's no real way around how complicated and difficult it was. "I don't think there's a good way to take it." She crosses her arms snugly around her, like a self-hug. "I tried to tell him it's okay to be angry, but he blames himself instead. I guess a part of me worries that if he holds onto that quietly, or denies it to himself, the resentment might come back around to us later."

"Rinoa, I was part of the couple you and Squall bumped into at the dance," Nida countered. "During which you were flirting with Squall. And dating Seifer."

Sorry, but he will absolutely point out how that was weird before that, hun.

"I'm working on some of that, but there isn't much I can do about what he's been through. I wasn't there, I haven't been through that. And he doesn't even care about what I have to tell him about the future. Some of this has to come down to you."

Rinoa looks genuinely surprised. "I was not flirting with Squall, I was dancing with him. He looked shy and lonely against the wall and I've been to a lot of parties over the years, I always try to bring the wallflowers out onto the dance floor." She wrinkles her nose at him. "Was I flirting with every person I dragged onto the dance floor at the party a few weeks ago?" Because seriously, some things are just for fun. She means that.

"I'm working on it. It's not like I'm even close to figuring out my end either. I think he's accepted that I'm not afraid of him or blame him for anything. Believing that for himself is going to take longer."

"It was different," Nida countered. And really, Squall never looks 'shy'. He looks like he would rather be doing literally anything other than socializing. Sorry, from the way he read that night, she may have already been a foot out the door.

"Maybe try beating him up. Not even going to lie, Rinoa. You could stand to learn to fight, and he's good at hand to hand. That sort of thing? it can help him process through stuff. And since you would have to start at the very beginning, it might work for him. Plus, you know, once you learn throws, throwing him around can be cathartic."

Rinoa wasn't going to argue with him about his perceptions. She knew she wasn't flirting so it didn't really matter what other people thought.

That idea was interesting though. "You're not wrong about the fighting. I can't really count on my projectiles here. Even if Mr. Stark would make them, I'm not always going to have a distance." Rinoa only vaguely knew how to fight, so she was easy pretty when it came down to it. She didn't train like they did. "I'll probably have to insist he not take it easy on me. Otherwise we might as well be having a pillow fight." Squall and Seifer treated her at times like she was made of glass, so it was probably going to take some stubbornness on her part. Which she had in spades.

"Thanks, Nida. That's definitely a better job than going to the dojo. I wasn't so sure I wanted to learn from a stranger."

"You want him to take it easy at first. He's good and hits hard. You could get hurt. But I can egg him on if you need."

It's just that Nida? He doesn't want to be the one to train her. He knows hand to hand insn't his thing. Well, he'd teach her throws if he could. Because those he's good at. But that's a talk for another day he thinks.

"Anyway, I'm going to make sure he hasn't killed Billy or something. Have fun, and give me heads up when you're ready to have our house back."

"It's a good idea! I appreciate it." Rinoa would like to be able to think that she could handle herself in a fight if it came down to it. She smiles and waves him away. "The party will know when it's done, people will start drifting naturally, you'll know when it happens. Go get Billy."

"When you say it like that, you make it sound naughty," Nida rolled his eyes. "Just need to save him from Seifer."

Clearly that's all that he was up to. Geez.

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[Mingle] The First Official Meeting of the Young Adult Club

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have a field day with that one Rinoa

UH HUH.

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