Richie's Third Not Therapy Session [OTA Mingle]

[mrsklover]

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: The Deep End!
WHAT: The Third Not-Therapy Therapy Meeting!
WHEN: After all the candy is dropped off
WARNINGS: Probably nothing but CW your threads

The message is going to go to everyone all at once. Richie's face fills the screen as he holds up one of his white chocolate candies next to his beaming smile:

"So! Who is ready for our next group meeting at The Deep End, eh? This time I wanna make sure everyone knows they're invited, even if they're not gonna get wasted. Although like...after that shit show I think we all have reason to want to, right? Uh. Unless you're a minor. I guess. There's a fucking lot of you, now. Which means I should probably not curse, too. But what-the-fuck-ever! Someone lost a fucking hand! Shit's dark! Welcome to Agra 10, bitches!

But at least we have candy?
"Which is actually my point, here. This meeting is gonna be a candy exchange for everyone. Come in like an hour and bring whatever sweets you haven't eaten yet and let's have some Trick-or-Treating fun. I think we deserve it, guys. So. Yeah. Candy time! See ya there!"

And that's it. The grand invitation from Mr. Tozier is to bring you to the Third Definitely-Not-Even-A-Little-Therapeutic Group Therapy session: Candy edition. He's gonna have tables set up with little bowls and one set off to the side with a sign poking up he made himself; a bright pink set of cartoon-ish testicles covered with a giant, red 'X'. It's the 'No Nuts' table, if you didn't get the crude joke. But of course you did. Richie is a professional comedian, guys. That was classic. People paid good money for content like that and you just get it for free!

But that's beside the point. And the point is CANDY SWAPPING! So let the Not-Therapy begin!


[This is a mingle post for you guys to share your candy! Make your own top-levels and have a good time! RIP my inbox!]

Comments

[deal_me_in]

Cayde laughed. "I'm kidding! They just call it bark because I guess it kinda looks like it. Why people like naming food stuff after things that aren't particularly appetizing, I have no idea."

He gestured to the bag. "Give it a try though."

[plate_builder]

Oh! Reeve flushed a little in his embarrassment from having taken Cayde literally. That had been a mistake, clearly.

"Uh, alright," he said, trying to push aside the redness of his cheeks as he took up a small piece. "Though cinnamon is, in fact, bark. I thought I should note that."

And then he took a little bite. Not bad. Not half bad at all.

[deal_me_in]

"But it's called cinnamon," Cayde countered, still grinning. "So the Agrii can manage flavors outside of peanut butter and jelly after all!" He reached over to pick one of the candy pieces from the bag, popping into his mouth.

[plate_builder]

"It's possible that the chocolates are something they didn't acquire here," Reeve suggested as he considered the bag of 'chocolate bark'. "There are many things we receive here that don't seem to be theirs. Like my materia."

And the droids. And many other little things.

[deal_me_in]

The Exo tapped his fingers on the counter, nodding. "Yeah, you've got a point. I mean, I got some pre-Golden Age movie disc once! Maybe they beam up random stuff on search just like they do people."

[plate_builder]

"Movie disc?" Reeve asked. There were movies on discs? Strange how that wasn't something he knew how to fathom. It wasn't often he was thrown for a loop with tech, but there he was confused.

"Your idea might not be so wrong."

[deal_me_in]

"Oh yeah. Of course I have no way of watching the thing but I guess it's the thought that counts. Would've gotten more use out of an actual dodgeball like I asked for though." He shrugged. "So what's this pillow candy of yours taste like?"

[plate_builder]

"Well, perhaps there will be a way to watch it at some point."

Still, he takes out the baggie of his pocket and selects a candy from it.

"Caramel. But without the filling. It's very interesting."

[deal_me_in]

Cayde held a hand out, curling and uncurling fingers in that sort of 'gimmee-gimmee' gesture. "Ooh, caramel? Guess you can't go wrong with caramel, even without filling."

[plate_builder]

Well of course he puts the chocolate in Cayde's hand. The man is so excited that Reeve was amused.

"I'm sure you CAN go wrong with caramel if you try."

[deal_me_in]

"Well, probably, but that'd take effort." But then what did he know about making candy? Cayde shrugged, flicking the piece in the air with his thumb before catching it again so he could pop it into his mouth.

[plate_builder]

"I understand it's easily burned," Reeve countered. But he smiled as he watched Cayde eat the chocolate.

Only for Mini to pipe up.

"Can ya taste et?" Mini asked Cayde, truly intrigued.

[deal_me_in]

"Burning takes effort!" Fire works hard, man!

Cayde leaned against the counter as he let the flavors sink in, and he shot Mini a glance then. "'course I can! Couldn't tell you how- maybe I've got a zillion sensory nerves acting as tastebuds, but how else would I enjoy spicy ramen!" He wagged a finger in the air. "-but we're talking candy here. Not bad at all- caramel's more of an undertone to the chocolate, but not understated, all works very well. The drizzle doesn't really do anything for it but I guess that's just decoration for you."

[plate_builder]

"That's a point."

Still, Reeve's staring at the seemingly professional review (at least in his gaze), while Mini's mouth has fallen open.

"Ya can eat!?" Mini asked, truly jealous of that bit of news.

[deal_me_in]

He was taking that as a double point in his favor given Reeve's stare, and the Exo wasn't even trying to hide being smug about his delivery. It wouldn't be the first time he'd reviewed some kind of edible but it had to be a believable blend of fact and flowery phrases.

"I can drink too, but it's not as much fun watching everyone else get drunk but yourself."

[plate_builder]

Sometimes flowery phrases was the truest way to convey how a thing tasted. How it connected with a person too.

"Wow," Reeve said, shocked to hear it.

Mini too was staring, jaw hanging open. Jealous wasn't even remotely enough to say how it was.

"Ah wish ah cud eat," Mini said at last.

[deal_me_in]

Cayde looked at the both of them, metal brow lifting. "What, you thought I just opened a bar for the hell of it?" He laughed a little, shaking his head.

"I don't actually need to eat or anything, it's just carried over from, well, before I was metal," he admitted with a shrug. He gave Mini a light pat. "Maybe one day Reeve'll figure it out for you. But then you might get your insides all sticky and stuff, and I reckon food'd make a mess of your nice plush fur."

[plate_builder]

"Might be a social space you like," Reeve pointed out. There were those that liked bars for that atmosphere.

"Ya had a time afore the metal?" Mini asked, frowning. He hadn't expected that.

"I can't make it so you can process it all," Reeve confirmed, as much for Mini as fore Cayde. "I'm sorry."

[deal_me_in]

"That too," Cayde conceded. Diners didn't quite have the same atmosphere as bars did, and he figured that people were more inclined to talk or just soak things in over a drink than over a meal.

He nodded at Mini. "Yep. A real long time ago, used to be flesh and blood just like Reeve here."

[plate_builder]

Well now Mini clearly didn't know what to do with that. This was his big brother after all. And he was learning that the man was once... well, not like him. Reeve took pity on his companion and pat the doll on the head.

"I suppose it's not something we had ever considered, the full change of a biological being into something else. Which makes you even more of a wonder," Reeve assured the Exo on behalf of the speechless doll.

[deal_me_in]

"That was a whole other life centuries ago. Honestly I don't remember much of it," Cayde admitted. But he hoarded those fragments that he did, although sometimes that was all they were, fragments.

"I think it'd be more like a transfer than a full change. Don't ask me 'bout how the details work out though." He reached out to nudge Mini's chin up with the crook of a finger. "You want wonders you got one right here. If you didn't tell me you started off as a voiceless plush I wouldn't have figured you weren't alive. And even when you weren't able to talk you still had enough personality that I wouldn't think you were a toy."

[plate_builder]

Centuries ago. Reeve and Mini are both staring now because of the idea of the man being that old. That was, well, unheard of by any humanoid in his world. Even Vincent likely wouldn’t survive that long.

“Sounds like a process that might be vaguely traumatic. It wouldn’t be surprising that you didn’t have the details or memories directly around it,” Reeve noted with a thought.”

But Mini looked pleased over being called a wonder.

“Aye, but there war those tha did some thinkin’ tha ah was just a magic doll. But ah got a soul.”

[deal_me_in]

"It's complicated," Cayde said, nodding his agreement. Guardians weren't encouraged to remember their pasts, but there were instances when you couldn't help but get those flashes, especially between a bullet and death.

He laughed. "Well, some people got more open minds than others. I doubt dolls can express as much as you do."

[plate_builder]

Not encouraged to know their pasts? How sad was that. Reeve absolutely would want that sort of knowledge about his own history. Why was it wrong to want that? Then again, he didn’t know what life was like in Cayde’s world.

“Ah do a lot uh thinkin’. But not all people here have always been good ta meh,” Mini admitted, arms crossing over his chest.

[deal_me_in]

"That's when you smack 'em upside the head," Cayde suggested with a grin. What an encouraging big brother!