Litha Feast (Open to all court members and human guests, dated for the 21st)

[detectiveofthewest]

The grounds were brightly lit and festooned with decoration: trees covered in sweet-smelling dew, leaves of gold and red, vividly-colored streamers woven with thread finer than spider's silk. All around, the tables were piled high with all the food and wine one might expect of a grand feast. (Apparently, the fae had spared no expense.)

The Seelie King and Queen were present, though distanced from the rest of the revellers -- and quite a few revellers there were. Men and women with petals in their hair, clothes of vibrant silk and satin, and a rainbow of rare feathers and gems. Some looked human, some looked animal. Some, such as in the case of a well-dressed gentleman with skin like birch bark, looked like none of the above.

Comments

[mensrea]

"Right behind you, pal."

Stiles is not answering the first question. The less you know, Heiji, the better. It's for your own safety. Really. Entering the toolshed, Stiles eyes the wall of powertools with too much interest. Better get him out of there fast, Heiji...

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji shooed Stiles through the doors before he could grab any chainsaws. They weren't direcly at the feast, of course, when they arrived in the Other Realm. But even in the distance, the festival location was clearly visible, lit up in gold and accompanied by the faint sounds of song drifting on the air.

"Oh yeah, I better mention -- eating fairy food and drink can make ya more susceptible to its magic. It won't do anything to you on its own, usually, but just to be careful, I brought some snacks." He opened the little bag he had with him, revealing a small stash of convenience store snacks and some wrapped hot dogs.

There were a few horse-drawn carriages passing them by, though there were also partygoers walking or (by the looks of it) flying to the celebration.

[mensrea]

The warning does little to pull Stiles out of his trance-like state as he eats up the sight of the Other Realm; he’ll never get tired of visiting. This is what he imagined the supernatural world to be like, well before his eyes were opened to the reality. There’s a small part of him that wishes his mother could have seen the kingdom of the fae, so much like the stories she used to read to him at night.

“Aw, that’s it?” Fortunately, the complaint isn’t aimed at Heiji’s wisely packaged food. “I thought that it was more, like, Hades and Persephone. Eat fairy food, get stuck here for eternity. Or something.”

Which begs the question of why he sounds so disappointed that's not true. Stiles, please get your head checked.

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji laughed. "If that were the case, we wouldn't be able to leave! ...Although I guess it'd be possible to put a curse on something. Seems like a pretty terrible way to treat your dinner, though."

He was of the firm opinion that food was something to be thoroughly enjoyed, definitely not something you ruined with black magic and junk. As they chatted, a beautiful lady rode by, clad in streaming, gauzy silks. She smiled briefly at one or both of them as she passed.

"Hey, if you could live in any borough in London, which one would it be?"

[mensrea]

“Dinner as in actual food, or dinner as in…”

Except that thought trails off as he stares wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the beautiful woman. Stiles is imagining himself riding with her, he a knight and she a princess. This place is amazing. He never wants to leave.

“Marry me pl—wait, what?” Blinking, he cocks his head at the question. “Uh, I don’t know, dude. I guess I don’t really care. Wherever there’s the best pizza?”

[detectiveofthewest]

"Of course dinner as in actual food! Although I guess there's -- " He trailed off to bow respectfully to the lady passing them by.

"It's just that I been thinking about getting a place. Be nice if it was somewhere convenient." Which probably ruled out a lot of west London, sadly.

[mensrea]

Watching the lady ride on from the corner of his eye, he makes a thoughtful noise deep in his throat.

"I'm probably not the right guy to ask. I haven't been here long. But why the sudden change? You must be...well, oldish, right?"

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji gestured with a hand, cheerfully waving off the notion of seriousness. "Oh, I don't mean permanently or anything. Just for as long as I'm here. I mean, like a base of operations. And then I could put all my stuff there."

Wait. What. "Hey! I ain't old -- I'm pretty young for a fox."

[mensrea]

“Alright. How old are you then?” he asks, genuinely curious. He’s still considering the idea of Heiji setting up a swanky base of operations, except he’s stuck with the image of foxes frolicking in a woodsy cottage.

[detectiveofthewest]

It took Heiji a second to remember; once you passed 100 or so, it was easy to lose count of the years.

"'Bout two hundred. But it ain't uncommon to find someone from the Heian Period or older. You're still a teenager, though, right?" Sometimes it was a little hard to tell with humans.

[mensrea]

About two hundred.

"Hoooly crap." Staring at the kitsune with a new kind of respect, he thinks of what it'd be like to live that long. "And yeah. I'm seventeen. In human years."

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji grinned. "You mean ya measure time in some other kind of year? C'mon, let's get going. We don't get a move on, we'll miss the contest!"

And he set off in the direction of the feast.

[mensrea]

With a good-natured roll of his eyes, he hurries after Heiji. Time to get to work on ensuring he's crowned a prince...mwahahaha.