revivalproject | ♤ THAT ONE PIZZA PARTY THING

(This here's a very free-form, very belated follow-up to the impromptu pizza party that ~~Tony~~ Cayde apparently planned, just for continuity's sake and if anyone was really angling for some pizza times.

So! Feel free to handwave, or if you want to thread anything out, here's a place for it to be back-threaded to your heart's content, as well as if you want some lighter fare alongside your slice of scary, event-wise.)

[Two hours- probably less by now- wasn't much time to make pizzas even if he knew how, that much, Cayde-6 was certain of. He already has a good idea of who's put him up to the task, although if there's any particular reason for it, he hasn't the slightest. It's just one of those dumb friend things, right? Put your pal on the spot by telling everyone they're hosting a pizza party. Sure!

With comms compromised, Cayde relied on his good ol' Hunter skills to track down Billy, an even better friend to have when one of your besties pulls something like this.

"Hey, can you do me a solid and magic up a crapload of pizzas cuz some idiot thinks he's having a hoot trying to tarnish my good name. Thanks, I owe you buddy."

...WHICH IS HOW those who have been drawn to The Deep End, either by ~~false~~ promises of pizza or curiosity or even doubt will come to find an amazing array of pizzas stacked along the counter with a kaleidoscope of dishware stacked off to the side for some self-service.

Grab a slice or three, take a seat, take in the fish, hey! Even ask for a drink. This here's a bar you know!]

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The Hunter did love his stories, but this one he felt particularly important to relate that he didn't embellish as he usually tended to.

"They're called the Graq. Not bad little guys, but they're not used to technology and stuff. Someone nabbed 'em from their home which happened to be a nearby planet, gave 'em guns and dropped them off on the Agrii ship to play the part of the bad guy. They were just confused and wanted to go home. They stuck to the garden because it had trees in it." He held up a finger. "You been to the other city? That place has traces of previous Graq habitation everywhere."

The Exo grabbed a slice of pizza, eyeing it before he popped it into his mouth. Maybe it was strange seeing a mechanical being eat regular food, but apparently it wasn't anything new as Cayde polished off his slice with minimal mess. He dabbed his face with a napkin. "Yep, explode. Someone else set everything up, and now they were just upping the ante to see what all we'd do. We managed to get everyone off those ships because we couldn't deactivate the settings, all the Agrii, the Graq who were put on those ships- packed 'em all onto the main one just in time."

"So all of the Graq." Noctis paused over the unfamiliar word. "Went home?" He wasn't sure if he'd seen anything that resembled creatures like that but in his head all he could picture were the ones summoning Garuda all sitting rather cross legged.

This was a really odd story but then again the ones he went through back home would probably seem weird in the other's eyes. So he chose to not say anything about that. After all, who would believe him about talking spiders and mindflayers and all sorts of other things he had in his world.

"The ones that must've lived in the other city out here? No idea. We didn't even know the Graq being here was a thing until we were able to explore the other place, and the Agrii didn't seem to recognize them at all. Of course, no telling whether the Agrii we know are the same that used to originally live here either."

Cayde shrugged. "But the ones we met in the ship, we helped them back to their home planet. That's why some of us found things so familiar out in the other place. Like the quarry, and all the trees, the way the buildings are made. The Graq'd use their spit- gross, I know- to melt rock basically, to a point that it's moldable so when it's hardened again it's even tougher than before. They make their weapons that way. I got a knife from them."

"That almost sounds pretty complicated." Noctis observed. To think the spirits of this place weren't the originals and had no idea about visitors or the link. That really made his brain hurt.

Well using spit for weird things hadn't been that out of the ordinary. He'd heard about how pearls were made and what they were made from. But he wasn't going to get into all that, nor about how spider silks were made that he used for his fishing line.

Some things totally went better unsaid.

So he nodded at Cayde. "Guess a lot of things are still kind of odd."

Cayde laughed. "No 'almost' about it." He would hardly blame Noctis for getting a headache over it all.

At least he was no stranger to the use of spiders. He'd been the one to come across the cave full of them along with Moonshade, after all. Pouring himself a drink, the Exo smiled crookedly as he shook his head.

"The place only gets weirder. Best we can do is try to keep on our toes and see if anything starts to clear up."

"I have a feeling you're right." Noctis replied with a sigh. Nothing to him was weirder than being in a strange land and among the living again. He'd made his peace with death and all that entailed, including leaving his loving and loyal companions behind.

He'd expected to be reunited with Luna, and that hadn't happened. Instead he was talking with a man pouring a drink and having pizza of all things. Who in the hell would've thought that?

"How often do we encounter the Agrii though?"

"Not often," Cayde admitted after downing half his glass. "Most of the time we only ever hear from Gary and that's when something big happens. If you're talking personal appearances, that's even less, seeing as how they won't set foot on this planet so long as the storms are still a thing."

Noctis nodded. He'd heard something about the storms and the agrii before..somewhere. But now hearing the reconfirmation had him thinking about how to locate them. It would definitely give him more to do than to fish and to hunt though he definitely had his hands full doing just those two things.

So he set his empty plate aside for now. "So..where do those storms occur again?"

"Locally, so far as I know. First and only one I ever experienced was pretty big, we ended up flying into it when we were coming back from that Agrii rescue. Screwed up our shuttle's systems and we crash-landed in the woods a good distance from the city." Cayde finished off his drink, shrugging. "I hear the one before that started off in the mountains and that's even farther off."

The king sighed with a nod. "Well the mountains are a good place to start I guess." Again he'd have to squeeze that in between hunting and fishing but if he got good at time management somehow, he might be able to do it.

"Nothing like going to see it first hand."

Cayde chuckled. "If you can get there by foot. I don't know how long that trek'll be. I know there was some talk about heading out to explore beyond the city but we haven't gotten around to it yet, not to mention our numbers have thinned out." He glanced quietly towards the fish tank at that, shaking his head.

"I'm beginning to wonder that someone or something doesn't want us wandering too far from the city."

Noctis looked back at the table when Cayde mentioned their numbers thinning out. It had been quieter on the network he'd noticed. A lot of people maybe weren't posting as frequently, or maybe entire groups had gone home, it was hard to say. And it wasn't like he did any sort of count to notice about folks coming or going either.

"I guess I'll find out."

♤ THAT ONE PIZZA PARTY THING

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