voidtreckerexpress | Let's Have a Party!

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Let's Have a Party!

Who: Everyone!
What: Throwing a party
Where: Gym carriage
When: Early Evening- early morning, Apple 28

It was three days after the incident with the train and right at two weeks since they'd been allowed to get off this train and roam a new world. Sure somewhere in there, they'd had a brief reprieve involving a new platform and mess of newcomers, but that had hardly counted as a break from the train. So, the point was, they needed a chance to blow off some steam. What better way than organize a party and roll out the last of his ale to share?

He'd recruited Sarai and Maglor to play their harps and/ or sing for music; Ignis, Ash and Evie to make hors d'oeuvres, Dread and Peter to bring in some chairs; and rigged a lamp and some cloth to make a disco ball-like display in the room (which he made Peter to promise not to touch).

Now he just had to get the guests on the dance floor... to harp music? He misses 'regular' music. Sigh.

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At least not everyone gives Manabu a very sudden outgoing greeting. Madoka's own way of doing things is always slightly more meek, after all, and she wouldn't want to startle him! But still, when she spots Manabu, she does remember him from her first day on the train - and she remembers that he was sweet and helped her, so the least she can do right now is help him in return.

"Oh, um.. I think there's a party." 'Think', she says, as if it isn't really obvious. "It sounds like fun, right?"

"Ah..."

It's a relief to see Madoka doing well enough -- as well as one can be trapped on a train going who-knows-where in...the void...whatever the void is. Man, he hates that there's kids being dragged into this! Adults and idiots like him, fine, but...

None of that right now. Not in front of her. Manabu pushes a weak smile on, nodding.

"Aa, right. Yeah. I mean...we gotta change it up now and then, right?"

He ought to take his own advice for a change, but...Manabu's never been one to so easily wind down.

"Did you find any good treats?"

It's time to wind down now, Manabu! Madoka won't let him go until he's had at least some fun..! She will make the sad puppy eyes at him if he doesn't go and enjoy himself at the party, don't make her do that. They're too powerful.

For now she just smiles at the question though. "Are you looking for some food? Let's go, we can check out what's here together..!"

"Okay, sure."

It won't kill him to appease her, yeah? And, if he were honest, her good cheer is already a balm in of itself; hard to be justifiably cranky in the face of that face! Manabu stuffs his hands in his pockets and follows her over to the humble array of treats -- more of a bounty than anyone's seen on the train since boarding, honestly. He's...kind of impressed?

"Huh...we must've picked up a proper chef at the last stop..."

"Uwah.. you're right, it's amazing!"

Madoka's eyes are practically lighting up at the sight of the food. Despite with how few people this party must have been put together - it's not as if there's a huge number of people here on the train, after all - everything about this party seems pretty great. She sure is impressed by it, anyway, and visibly so.

"It looks so good that it'd almost feel like a shame to eat it.."

"Haa, what's that?" He quirks an eyebrow at that. "If it's good looking food, that means it's good to eat, right? It'd be a shame to not."

Okay, fine. Parties aren't really his jam, but food is a necessity...and well-prepared food? That's a blessing. He can get behind this.

He plucks one of the toothpicks spearing some sausage and breading and plops it on the topmost plate in the stack at the end of the table before handing it over to her.

"Here. Go for it!"

Well, there's no way Madoka could refuse it when it's being held out to her like that. If not just for the fact that she'd never want to be rude. And.. well, she actually does feel like eating right now, so she accepts it with a smile.

"Thank you very much!" And the obligatory over-politeness, as usually.

The girl sticks the food on the toothpick into her mouth, pulling the stick itself out of her mouth as she chews on the food, making sure to swallow before she speaks up again.

".. Oh, it really is good! You should try it as well."

"That so?"

Well, he wasn't going to waste time being too polite; Manabu doesn't bother with the plate and just picks one up, biting and pulling the snack off the toothpick with a bit more gusto than polite Madoka, piping up mid-chew.

"Ohf--it's got some spice!" he declares before gulping it down. "I didn't expect that. That's great!"

Thankfully - despite her own overly polite mannerisms - Madoka doesn't seem to mind it in the slightest when other people let them slip a little more. She just seems glad that he's enjoying it too. Step 1 of getting Manabu into this whole party business is a success.

"You like spice?" It occurs to her that she doesn't know too much about him yet, so maybe this is a great time to get to know him a little better. Now they're not looking for her alien ~~tormentor~~ not!pet, anyway. "What kind of food did you usually eat back home, if that's alright to ask..?"

"Ah, no--it's fine." He shrugs a little, wearing an easier smile while his eyes browse the rest of the offerings.

"Back on Tabito...my mom runs a noodle shop out of the complex we grew up in. The place was always full of good smells." There's a fondness in his tone. "Best noodles in the galaxy. But that might be bias talking..."

Man, he'd love to have some udon again. Her udon, especially; he'll never top her skill.

"But maybe, whenever we make another stop, there'll be someplace to pick up noodle supplies. I can make a few of the easier types..."

It's easy to recognize that fondness in his tone. It's a very familiar feeling to her, after all - despite technically having said goodbye to her parents out of sheer coincidence before ending up here, Madoka really still is fond of them and misses them too.

But at least it's very easy to put a positive spin on that thought. Especially with the way he talks about it.

"Who knows.. Maybe the train will actually end up somewhere near your mother's noodle shop somehow." Sure, even Madoka knows the chance is slim. But the chance is still there, and that's what matters! Going to forever cling onto the tiniest spark of hope! "Then we could all eat there..! I'd love to try your mother's noodles myself!"

He laughs a little at the thought of poor Dread trying to even get in to the noodle shop. Poor mom, too, trying to handle so many people at once in that tiny space! She'd love it, but she'd also give him an earful for it.

"It's possible," he concedes, following her along the length of the tables. "I mean, where I'm from, people took trains to all kinds of different planets and places all over the galaxy. I can't say I know what or where a void is or even goes, but...I mean, weirder stuff has happened, right?"

Boy, he has no idea who he's talking to when it comes to weird stuff.

"Oh, say-- Did you ever find your cat? I don't see any cats around or anything, but..."

"Oh.. No, I haven't."

For a moment she seems almost surprised at the question. If the train taking off hadn't put the whole deal with trying to find Kyuubey out of her mind, then getting stuck in that no gravity situation sure did. A lot of other things needed her attention more.

"I figured that if we haven't found him by this point, he probably isn't here.." That thought makes her look a little sad, although it's not for any reason he's probably assuming it does.

"Oh..." Golly, Manabu sure is great at parties! Have a great topic like food, bring it down by talking about missing cats. What a champ.

He clears his voice awkwardly.

"Well, that...that might be for the best," he offers, mouth twitching in a feeble attempt at a smile. "I mean, there's a giant spider-thing on board now. I bet it'd think your poor cat would be a great meal..."

A true champ, since he's now confronting Madoka with a possibility she hadn't even thought of yet herself. She just assumed he wasn't here, despite him having been right next to her a moment before she showed up on the platform, but now..

"Ah..."

Maybe the spider ate him. She did talk to the spider, and it seemed.. relatively friendly compared to what anyone would expect from a spider that size, but maybe the spider didn't know Kyuubey wasn't just some normal random cat! Maybe he really got eaten! (Which usually wouldn't even be that much of a bad thing, but she needs to make a contract with him first, okay!!)

Madoka seems to grow more and more pale with every second of this realisation. She's even stopped chewing the bit of food in her mouth in shock. Did you just break her, Manabu?

Manabu does a double-take and nearly spits out his own food, gut-punched by the growing look of horror on the poor girl's face. Oh, jeez...!

"I, I mean!" He held his hands up, at a loss for what to do with them to help calm her down. "That's probably not! What happened! I mean--! Even that spider-guy was weirded out by everything, why would it even think to try and eat something then? I, I think we'd have seen it, someone would've said something, you know?"

His eyes dart wildly around the car for a second, trying to make a silent cry for help form someone. Anyone. Why is everyone busy having a good time when he's over here giving a kid nightmares?!

She can't get it out of her head now. What if Kyuubey really did get eaten by the spider. What if Kyuubey did get eaten by the spider. What if her world is literally doomed just because the spider decided to make a snack out of her sketchy alien not-quite-friend?

But in the middle of her panic she glances over at Manabu, noticing he's starting to look the same way she looks right now. And no matter how worried she is, Madoka will be Madoka. Which means she doesn't want anyone to freak out for her sake, so she tries to push the worries into the back of her head the best she can.

It doesn't help much. But she's trying.

"H.. Hmm, I guess we can't be sure it really happened.." It definitely doesn't sound convincing enough to seem like she's calm again. "A-And maybe.. The spider will just sooner or l-later.. poop him out..?"

Listen, that sounds like a ridiculous suggestion to most people, but not to Madoka who saw him literally survive anything.

"Uh..."

He looks appropriately nauseated by the prospect. And a little confused, too. Do spiders poop. That...that might be an issue, considering the giant one skittering around the train.

Suddenly, a thought pops into his head.

"Oh! Peter!" Peter! Spider-boy. Crawls on ceilings, calls the spider Charlotte (and thinks that's hilarious for some reason)... Manabu claps his hands together. "I bet if you talked to Peter, he could talk to the spider. He's--he's got like a rapport with it? If anyone could make sure, he could."

"R-Really? Is he close to the spider?" That's kind of surprising to her, since Madoka doesn't know about the whole spider deal going on with Peter. But she figures that maybe he's just really good at befriending anything somehow? He seemed nice when she talked to him...

"Maybe I'll ask.. You don't think it'd be rude to do so, do you..? I don't want to make the spider angry.."

What are spider manners even like!

"I think it'd be fine," he insists, half out of honest opinion and half out of a need to convey some kind of certainty to dispel that worry on her face. Despite her trying to diffuse his own worry, he can tell by the way her eyebrows pinch that she's still imagining her poor kitty getting wrapped up by a monster spider. Way to go, Officer Yuuki! You're great with kids!

"I can even ask for you! If you want. So if anyone gets angry, they get angry at me." He grins crookedly. "I already kinda got mixed up with that thing earlier, so it'd track on my record. Ha..."

Thankfully Madoka, as naive and easily trusting as she is, immediately believes him when he says he thinks it'll be fine. She doesn't even detect the slightest trace of him just desperately wanting to make her look less worried, so she slowly nods..

But that last part sure doesn't dispel her worries. Or rather, it makes them focus on something else entirely.

"I don't want anyone to get angry at you though.." Just the thought itself is enough to make her look slightly sad. "You've been so kind to me and helped me multiple times already. I don't want to bother you."

"Just the one time," he corrects, a little laugh in his voice. "But no, don't worry! Helping people in and out of pinches is kind of my job. You don't have to worry me, okay?"

Is it his job here? No. But he sure is going to act like it is.

Well, who would Madoka be to ignore the words of a Responsible Adult™? She could never bring herself to do that. So even though she feels kind of guilty for him having to help her like this, she still doesn't protest, instead just nodding slightly.

"Thank you, in that case. But.. um, even if it turns out Kyuubey was never here at all, then I guess that just can't be helped.. Maybe I do have some more time before I have to find him." That's.. a very cryptic statement, yes, but it really rolls off Madoka's tongue without her really thinking about what she's saying. It's more just her musing to herself. If she realised she was saying that out loud, she wouldn't be implying there's some sort of time limit on having to find her "cat" for some reason.

What's cryptic about it? She'd have to find him before it was time to feed him, right? Right??

In any case, Manabu's shoulders sag a little with a release of tension, relieved to have come to an understanding.

"We'll make sure that if he is hiding here at all? You'll get him back. Otherwise, he'll be waiting for you after we find a way off this thing and back to everyone's proper places. Sound good?"

~~Just wait until you see what Kyuubey is capable of consuming, Manabu..~~

".. Hmm. That sounds good." If everything back home is still waiting for her, then it'll be alright either way, no matter whether she makes a contract here on the train or back home. She has to just keep hoping for that possibility to be the truth.

"But.." She looks back at him. "Everything shouldn't just be about my lost.. cat right now." There's a slight pause before the word 'cat', but at least not long enough to be really jarring. She's just still trying to get used to this lie. Half-truth. Whatever. "We're at a party.. You should be having fun!"

Let's Have a Party!

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