seasonsrpg | The Sauna Summit

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The Sauna Summit

WHO: Open!
WHAT: Twilight's get-to-know-you sauna outing
WHEN: June 7
WHERE: Frostreign Sauna Spa
WARNINGS: Twilight's wearing swim trunks in, but possible nudity for others / npcs.

Starters in comments! Anyone's free to join even if they didn't reply to his network post, assume he put up another public note with the date and an open invite, and messaged anyone who expressed interest. Feel free to make your own top levels if those don't suit.

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Twilight, used to the impressive reach his celebrity as the Demon King gave him, had at first been a little disappointed he hadn't gotten a bigger response for his offer. He'd wanted to meet humans, after all, and the only one he'd gotten a response from was someone he already knew. It would have been easy to scrap the whole plan... but as he'd waffled over it he'd realized that his old standards didn't apply here. More than that, there was something a little exciting about hosting a small gathering instead of some sort of big group excursion. It was kind of like a meetup with friends! And even if they were demons by name, the other guests still seemed very different from anyone he'd met - he could learn from them too. Or maybe just make friends.

So he'd made his arrangements, booking a sauna and a table at the inn. By the time he was out in front of the spa, waiting for his guests, his nervousness wasn't trepidation at the size of his 'event', he was just hoping he'd be able to make connections with whoever did come.

"Welcome!" He shuffles through the snow to greet anyone he recognizes, carrying a sign that clearly announces that he's greeting 'Twilight's party'. Complete with his smiley-with-horns demon king logo.

[There's a fluttering of wings from up above! Who could that be!

Down comes Koro, with grotesque, leathery wings flapping from his back and slowly descending him onto the ground. Once his feet reach the snow, the wings disgustingly crackle and snap and slither as they slowly withdraw into his back, somehow leaving his coat intact.

...Surprise?? Looks like there's a reason Koro was so interested in Twilight as a demon? He takes a look at the sign the demon king is holding.]

Heh, look at that. It's cute, just like you.

[ He'd seen Evangeline shapeshift wings with the summer powers, so he might have thought it was that... but that had very pointedly not had the whole skin-crawling aesthetic Koro's display boasted.

It's so distracting that he kind of misses that he's calling him cute. Again. ]

Does that hurt???

Nah, it's just something that comes naturally to me. Been doing it for thousands of years.

[Koro can't help but be amused at the Demon King's reaction.]

Is this not a thing for you and your subjects?

No? I know a chimera who's always taking his own body apart and changing it around but usually if we have wings they don't, uh, come and go?

So you are a demon? And... from what you said I guess that body is a disguise?

[ Unsurprising for him, if for the wrong reasons. Thousands of years is plenty of time to learn a little appearance-changing magic. ]

Huh. Some of our demons can do that, too. Technically I can, in a way, depending on how you see the situation.

Right, anyway, yes. I'm a demon. Hence why I was curious about you.

And where I'm from, because I'm a demon, transformation and disguise is a natural ability.

[ ...he feels like taking yourself apart is a pretty straightforward can/can't binary and he's a little nervous about where, exactly, the middle ground lies. ]

Well. This is a get-to-know-me. So ask away? Or did you just want to get acquainted, uh, normally?

[It lies in getting decapitated or de-limbed by outside forces and having the ability to put the parts back on and heal... hopefully something that doesn't happen soon. Wouldn't want to ruin the mood!]

Is asking questions not a normal way to become acquainted?

[Koro chuckles, and attempts to grab Twilight's shoulder and turn him around, intending to casually put an arm around his shoulder and steer him towards the lobby of the spa, away from the cold (at least until someone else comes that needs to be welcomed). It's as if to say "let's walk and talk".]

So the horns. You just have them on all the time? Do the humans of your world not mind? Or...do you even have humans or adjacent?

"Hi!"

Rinku sparkles and waves at Twilight. She's shown up in a snowsuit, but she doesn't seem too bothered by the cold... maybe that's because heat is radiating off of her.

"You're the host, right? Is this really for everyone?"

Nothing wrong with indulging in some winter fashion even if she's got the powers! Twilight isn't quite sparkling but he perks up when he sees a new face making towards him with what looks very much like friendly intent.

"That's me! I'm Twilight. Anyone's welcome. You want to join us?"

It'd be a shame not to if she trekked out in the snow. Powers or no.

"Really? That's great!" Rinku bounces on her heels a little. "Is this a yay-we-survived party? 'Cause usually we have really big ones all over the city, but the city's kinda a mess right now. So it's really nice that you're having a party like this!"

"I planned it as a get-to-know-you party. Or get-to-know me? I'm new, so I just wanted to see some faces. But if people just want to let off the tension I'm happy to help! I booked a table, so we could all toast survival later."

He turns towards the inn.

"You want to get inside?"

"Of course!"

Rinku walks in and twirls once she's inside, opening up her jacket. "So you're still really new, right? I hope people were nice helping you out, but I'm sure they must've been."

"They've been really welcoming. Except the vampires." He's still miffed about that. "I was worried at the start but no one seems to mind me much. I can even have a gathering like this without worrying about it."

Well. As far as he knows.

"Right? There's nothing to worry about it?"

"Eh? You thought people were gonna hurt you?" She frets and looks around. "I don't think so. This place is nice! And there's tons of people who are always happy to see a new person. Wait, is it the demon thing? Because you seem nice to me."

Then it's time to hit the saunas. Twilight changes into swim trunks and a towel, so he's modest-ish, and settles into a central seat where he can hopefully talk with anyone. The sauna may be an environment dedicated to silent endurance, but sweating it out in the heat together makes for a shared bond and honest conversation! Or so Twilight hopes. At any rate, the oppressive heat isn't enough to keep him from chatting people up.

"Is this like the saunas where you're from? Have you been before?"

"Well, the swimsuits are new."

Evangeline is also wearing a swimsuit - specifically, a black and red bikini with a monster pattern on it. Tentacles, fangs, claws, the works. Thanks MK.

"Hey... I thought you wanted me to wear one?"

Don't rib him over this, Eva, he just wants everyone to be comfortable!

"Yours is cute. I like the design."

Though... compared to those frilly designs Syalis wears the cut is a lot more daring, isn't it?

"Thank you! My friend MK made it for me."

Sorry, Twilight, she doesn't own any non-sexy swimsuits.

He's. Not complaining. Though he's definitely feeling aware that he's probably the person who was most saved by doing this clothed-ish.

"Like, from scratch? That's really cool. Do you get out of your, uh, uniform? Often?"

...he's so bad with phrasing...

"With magic, but still cool."

She can't make clothes instantly by pulling a hair from her head, it still impresses her.

"My EGO suit... I've been working on it trying to wear it less? The thing is that it provides a lot of protection against damage of all kinds. So I could wear other clothes... or I could wear my EGO suit instead and be safer, just in case something happens, even when I have no reason to expect something to happen."

She had told him how dangerous it was where she came from, but he's still trying to fit together in his mind the Evangeline who's so brave about most things with the one who shows these flashes of all-too-grounded awareness of when she's vulnerable.

"I think it's a good thing to work on. Always making allowances for being in danger... I don't know if you can really relax like that."

Though there's a part of him that's happy to hear that she's doing this even though there's a measure of difficulty to it, for her.

"And... thanks for coming out here like this. Trusting me, I guess."

You can't relax like that, but always being on your guard is in some ways easier than allowing yourself to be vulnerable. Less scary, at least.

"You're welcome. -I'm pretty sure if you wanted to hurt anybody, you'd be way more straightforward about it. Challenge them to a duel or something. Not invite them to a sauna."

He looks a little hurt she even considered that interpretation. Though on him that mostly just looks like 'alarm.'

"I didn't mean like that! I wouldn't ever! I just meant that... you feel like you can let your guard down around me?"

He hopes he isn't assuming too much himself, saying that. Maybe he has nothing to do with it. But he'd protect any of his guests if anything happened!

That it visibly takes Evangeline a moment to even parse what he means by that is probably not reassuring.

“Oh - because you’d stop people from causing trouble, right? That makes sense.”

"I... I would. Yeah." Is that what he meant? Mostly. He is the Demon King, after all, who would make trouble with him around?

Besides, well, literally anyone who's followed his career here and noted he's run away from every potential fight he's encountered. It would, in fact, be entirely reasonable on available evidence to assume he'd need to hide behind Evangeline if anything truly serious went down.

He just. Isn't quite aware of that right now.

“Well, that helps too?”

Evangeline has also only seen him run away. A title like Demon King suggests strength, but she hasn’t seen it in action…

“We should spar sometime.”

"Oh. You... did want to duel me?"

It's not like he doesn't enjoy sparring! He battles Hades often enough. Sometimes even a little too enthusiastically. But for some reason thinking about fighting Evangeline feels... dissonant.

"No! I mean, in this case I wanted to hang out at the sauna and talk!" She's quick to clarify, waving her hands in front of her.

"It's just, for the future, I don't really know how strong you are?"

And when they've hit the limit of their endurance in the sauna... it's time to plunge into the icy waters, a test of bravery to shock them back to their senses.

Twilight rushes out, planning to jump straight in and get it over with. But even with the icy air of Frostreign making biting at him, he comes up the short at the edge of the water. That looks so cold! Do people really do this even here???

He looks back and forth. Someone just push him in...

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The Sauna Summit

Meeting up

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Forging friendships?

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