New Years Celebration (open, NK)

Yasumi had a fun idea since she had been to the 'Drunken Kage Bar' that faithful day she had met Max. She wanted to bring life back to this place and she wanted to get to know people that lived here in Kumo. So she had spent her free time cleaning the place and doing little errands to get the money to by drinks, sweets and other things that made live more comfortable and set up a small party to celebrate the new year that was about to come. So she had cleaned the tables, decorated them with tablecloths and colourful confetti. The walls were decorated with streamers and balloons all over.
Her brother had made sure the Bar was brought up to par and Neza himself had taken the evening off to help his little Sister in this endeavour to get to know Kumo folks. Today he would be serving drinks as well as he could and keep a watchful eye on his Sister. She had been prepping the buffet with finger foods like small sausages, pre cut fruits, crackers with cheese, small sandwiches, chips, pretzel sticks, chocolate fondue, bonbons and roasted nuts. She was kind of proud of herself to have prepared all this and now hoped people had found the flyer she had passed out.
To the people she knew where they lived she had sent private invites as well so they would feel specially wanted to come. Maybe her new friends were old friends and knew each other. Music was playing in the background as she was hanging up the last decorations in the room. Namely four piñatas in different shapes, one shaped like a zombie with hanging out tongue and open head, one being a duck with colourful feathers, next one resembling a dog but it looked like it was strangled dangling from its collar and the last one being a big blue cloud. A baseball bat was resting in a corner and she had a list of possible games arranged depending on what the people who would join her like more.

WC: 347

[OOC: I'd love for every one to join and freely post away. If you and your conversation partner do sit around and wana chat that is fine go ahead. You don't need to wait for someone else in the room to get their drink first if he or she does not interact with you at the moment. But most of all, have fun!]

Max would walk into the place listed on the invitation. For a party it seems rather... quiet. Max would look around, wondering who all would show up. Yasumi looked to be here, but she also looked to be busy setting things up and making sure that everything was in order. Max wouldn't bother her until he knew she had time.

Would anyone else show up?

Just as she finished hanging the last piñata she would turn around and see a familiar face had entered. She took a small jump as she saw who it was a quickly she would shift through the tables to get closer to her first guest. "Hi Max", waving at him she would then reach out for the boys shoulder to hug and squeeze him happy about him being here and then she smiled at him. "I am glad you came, I was a little worried no one would show up because well I am new and nobody really knows me, but I thought the place of our first meeting would be perfect", she chuckled lightly and then pointed over at the bar, where a young man of about 23 years was standing. Tall grown the same silk like black hair that she possessed and was currently dressed in the black pants, white shirt and black west get up he usually wore to work. The hair tied back and one could see earrings hang from his ears as he was sorting out his bar. "This is by the way my brother Neza, he will be serving drinks tonight", she said to her point at him and he would give a small nod at the young boy followed by a friendly, "Good evening I have heard a lot about you already young man. Thank you for saving my clumsy sister."
She made a pouting face with blown up cheeks and a turn of her head away from her brother towards Max: "I am not really that clumsy, most times at least", then she looked into the room and back at her guest again, "Do you like the decor? I have worked quite hard on it." She would smile at him knowing that since it was not a total mess he would not be so harsh as to say it was bad even if it was.

WC: 323
WC: 670

Max would almost immediately be embraced by Yasu, a big hug squeezing him like a stuffed bear she had just won at a carnival. Max would just accept the hug, realizing the futility of anything other outcome. “Roomy. Perfect indeed,” he would say not stating that it may be more room than needed considering how many folks have shown up so far.
 
Yasu would then show Max around the room, the boy taking in all of the decorations and work the girl put into making the place nice. She would point out a well-dressed man serving drinks at the bar. He seemed to be busy sorting various drinks and wiping down bar glasses with a towel. Yasu said that this was her brother, a grateful look upon his face as he looked upon young Max.
 
Thanks? Max wasn’t accustomed to being thanked much. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time to keep the man’s sister from harm. “It was nothing, really. As a shinobi it is simply my duty to stop such crimes. But thank you for your kindness, Neza.”
 
Max would note that Neza mentioned Yasu’s clumsiness. She didn’t seem all that clumsy from what Max had seen, and he would simply shake his head. “No she wasn’t clumsy. A bit new, yes. Overly compassionate as well. But clumsy? I failed to see it, though you spend more time with her and would know better than I.” Max would say, a faint grin on his face as he then points to a glass in Neza’s hands. “Could I have some Tea please? Iced and unsweetened if possible.”
 
When asked Max would simply reply, “The décor is nice. You managed to get this place nice and tidy in a very short time. It is nicer looking than my workshop.” Max would say, hoping to relieve some of the stress placed on the girl by herself and trying to impress the party goers.
 

“Did you do this all yourself?” Max would ask, wondering how she managed to get the place organized in so little time, especially considering her missing hand… and her clumsiness if her brother had been correct. Max would silently chuckle to himself on that last bit, looking over to the bar to see if his tea was ready.

Neza would nod his head at Max it was understandable that the Shinobi would not take praise for something like that still he did something he would see as acknowledge as a great deed at least to him. For him she was everything and usually his duty to protect her and not have her been protected from others. As Max pointed out as well, that she was not clumsy she nodded in agreement: "See he does not see it that way either!", she would casually stroke over Max's head and smiled happy at him. Neza chuckled for a moment and then looked at his bar: "Sure would you like green tea or black tea as a basis for it and rather plain or fruit flavour?", he then added to his question while he started to prepare some ingredients he would need for his iced tea.
Yasumi would take another look around the room and seemed a little proud of all her hard work. "Thank you Max", she chuckled and then looked at him, "By the way, can I visit your workshop some time? I would love to have a look around it and see how you work?" She looked to her brother that was currently juggling a can of liquid that would become Max's iced tea in some moments. "He is a puppeteer like I want to be and he is amazing in what he does truly", and then she turned to max again, "Yes well Neza lend me a hand with this, I am still not good with my left but I keep getting better every day", she chuckled and poked the zombie piñata. "But could be that we stay amongst us three in the end. I have met some other nice people, but I am not sure if they will come as well", she went to the bar getting Max his tea, cold, with straw, a lemon on the edge of the glass and ice cubes swimming on the surface.

WC: 332
WC: 1002

“Green, and plain. Thank you.” Max would say, answering the man serving the drinks.
 
Max would hear Yasu’s question about seeing his workshop and Max’s face would light up. “Yeah, I’d love to show you where I work. It is quite the space, with most of the things you could hope for in regards to materials. My brother Senshi made sure of that.” His tone would lower as he spoke these last words, the boy not wanting to think about what he had lost.
 
“Well if you ever need any assistance with your puppetry, you know where I'll be.” The boy would say with a small smile. “So Neza helped you out? I’m sure you did most of the work though.” He would say noting the zombie piñata. Max would look around the room again, taking it all in. The place was surprisingly empty still. Did everyone misplace their invitations? Or did they not know how to get here?
 
“People will show up, I’m sure.” He would say, trying to keep the conversation positive. “So do you have any ideas for puppets? I’d be glad to hear them. I may even be able to help out with the concept.” Max would then take his tea as she handed it over and he would take a long sip from the straw. It was as refreshing as ever. He would look over to Neza and nod, signifying his thanks to the man. “Thank you, Yasu.”

Her face brightened up as well as he agreed to take her to see his workshop and just at that thought she imaged a room full of tools and handy work of a puppeteer and now she was more than exited to reach that day when she would visit him there. Maybe he would show her some tricks and tweaks about the art of crafting puppets. But as he mentioned his brother she noticed the lower tone in his voice and her eyes would fixate him for a moment. At first she wanted to ask about it, but was stopped by him offering her help and she would nod: "That would be wonderful, actually that was, what I was about to ask, I mean", she looked around, "Making a puppet is different from slapping glue drained paper onto a balloon and then letting it dry I suppose and you are kind of the expert I suppose." She would pull them each a chair to sit down and do so.
"Well If not", she shrugs a little and thought about it, "If not I will bombard them with chocolate on Valentine's Day and be terribly cutesy about it so they will not know with what they deserved this", she chuckled a little over her supposedly evil plan to just put several men she knew into the crazy situation to either accept chocolate from her or turn her down just to then be told she did it because of friendliness not love at least this was now the plan.
Max question pulled her back to the conversation she had left a little outside her world and she smiled at him: "So my first Idea is something really simple. I want to build a hand puppet. With fingers that cane move like real ones because of the many ball joints they have so it can walk on its fingers to just training operating one and after that I have thought I have thought of puppet pairs. One with a devil design that is operating more offensive and an angle one that will have defensive mechanisms and when I reach high levels I will have one pair to switch it around to have the devil be the defence and the angle be the offence and then maybe a puppet combining both of them. I will name the Angel Hilite and the devil Mandavar", she was throwing at him like crazy, "They will be childhood friends turned lovers divided by what they become but they don't care and... well puppets", she chuckled as she blushed a bit.
Neza had listened as well and on Max approval nodded into his direction.

WC: 445
WC: 1447

Sakana was supposed to be on an island right now, nice beaches, doing some fancy training montage. But things rarely go the way they’re supposed to. Instead, he was stuck at Kumo because of a vicious snowstorm. There wasn’t anything to do today because it was hard to even get around with all the snow. That didn’t stop the Meijin though, he still spent the day wondering around the city, trying to get the best experience he could before he was supposed to leave for an unexpected amount of time. Most of the shops were closed due to the low visibility and unsafe conditions of the street. Sakana could have made a little extra money shoveling but he didn’t need money where he was going.  He didn’t think so anyway, what exactly was life like on a island where you’re the star of the show? He noticed one light at the end of the street though, and some people seemed to take refuge from the cold there. The Meijin didn’t really feel temperature so he was out in a sweatshirt and shorts, but he was still up for seeing what was going on.  
 
The Meijin strolled over to the building where he was slammed with a warm feeling along with the scent of different foods and sweets. This had all the makings of a party.  Sakana didn’t drink but what would be the harm in hanging around for a little while? Upon entering he looked around the bar, there wasn’t many people here, which made it easy for him to spot his friend Max talking to a girl he didn’t recognize. Sakana walked up in the middle of their conversation and said “Max! Buddy, I haven’t seen you since we got back into the village a while back.” Then the boy would turn to the girl Max was speaking with, “Hello Max’s friend, my name is Sakana Meijin, please to meet you.” He would let out a goofy smile as he extended his hand for her to shake.
 
WC: 343

Shivering under a tree, Renji would activate his byakugan in order to get a better lay of the land, the snow was now coming down like crazy and Renji could not see more than ten meters in front of his face. Just as he is about to scan out the area, one of the branches from the tree would give from the accumulated weight of all the snow that had built up on it, dumping it’s load onto Renji’s head.

“DAMN IT!! I hate the freaking Snow!” Renji would say in a loud voice as he shakes the mound of snow from the top of his head,  and uses his hand to brush what snow had gotten on his face. Once he had removed most of the snow from his head he would go back to scanning the area, it was getting late and the snow was only getting worse and Renji did not want to die before his birthday which was tomorrow.

Now looking at the area thru his byakugan Renji could see his friend Sakana, he was heading inside of a building. Having not seen him since the hoshi trip Renji would run after him, stopping once he got outside of the place he had just seen his friend enter.

Not wanting to be invasive, Renji would not use his byakugan to scan the inside of the building, but by looking at the sign, he could see that it was a bar. “hmm wonder what Sakana is doing in a place like this?..should I go in and check it out?  What if it’s a private event? I don’t know, what to do? Renji would debate back and forth for another five minutes before… BLOOP! A mound of snow would fall from the roof of the drunken kage bar landing atop Renjis head.  No longer caring if he was intruding or not, Renji would turn at the knob on the door and heads inside. Deactivating his byakugan as he does so.

A wave of warming heat would immediately overtake Renji as he steps through the door out of the cold. As he looks around the room he could see some faces that he knew and some that he did not. Happy to finally be out of the cold Renji would smile and greets the whole group with a hearty “Happy Holidays!” an ear to ear smile as he does so.


Wc
401

Max would listen to Yasu speak of how she would handle folks that decided to not show up. A bombardment of chocolate and sweets? Max considered whether he made the right call attending. He LOVED chocolate. In fact, Max would now scope around the room looking for something to satisfy his sweet tooth. "Speaking of chocolate... Is there any here now?"
 
Max would listen as Yasu talked about her puppets, trying to map the ideas in his head as she spoke. She seemed to have an interesting dynamic between her puppets, attempting to synergize their abilities. She seemed to be on the right track. If she manages to keep up that line of thinking she may end up becoming quite the puppeteer. Max would be able to watch her develop and help where he could, and the outcome of all the work would be… well, glorious.
 
She continued talking about them, telling of their past interactions as friends and lovers before becoming puppets. Did she hear them too? Max would wonder this as Napa had regularly talked to the boy, telling him of the world and all of its shortcomings. The young Chuunin was about to open his mouth and ask her if she also heard their voices as the door swung open, a cool chill filling the room momentarily.
 
Standing in that doorway he noticed a familiar face. It was Sakana, and Max was happy to see his friend. Since they had returned from Hoshi the two hadn’t been able to meet up and do much. They were both Chuunin now, and Max wondered how much Sakana’s responsibilities and duties had changed. Max had tried to be more involved with the duties of being a Kumo Shinobi, but there were things pressing in his mind that held most of his attention. He KNEW that he had been close to a breakthrough into replicating life. Maybe that would be the first step in returning Senshi…
 
“Sakana! Glad to see you! How have things been?” Max would say, nearly forgetting his manners. “Oh, sorry. Yeah this is Sakana, Yasu. And Sakana, this is Yasumi.” Max would scratch his head, almost embarrassed that he didn’t make proper introduction between his friends. Sakana would also introduce himself and extend a hand.
 
Right as Sakana was about to offer the shake, the door would swing open again. This time the frigid blast of air would be accompanied by another familiar face (well, to be fair most in the village had been familiar to young Max). It was Renji Hyuuga, a member of his team… with Senshi. Max was likely going to have to break the news to his comrade. Despite the rank up to Chuunin, Renji would always be a part of his team, at least in his heart. Max had already lost one team, and he had no intentions of losing another. On a more positive note if Max’s information had been correct, Renji was on the path to Chuunin as well and nearly there himself.
 
“Hey, Renji! It’s wonderful to see another friendly face!” Max would say as he beckoned Renji to come over and join them out of the cold.


“Indeed, Happy Holidays to you as well. I hope you managed to get some good stuff. I found some weird stuff delivered to my house not long ago. There was a box with some interesting trinkets inside. Did you folks get anything like that?” This last question would be to everyone, as Max hadn’t known who sent the gifts or why. He was glad he received them though.