"We have come to an agreement!" the kybuii spoke, voice ringing throughout the room." Oh, thank the gods," it had been a week of non-stop arguing, Sam was deifnly reaching his political people limit, as in he was on e more vield insult aimed at his or his people. Sam was going to bust someone's lip. Maybe some bones.
There were definitely benefits of staying here; the food was one of the most popular ones with Sam's group. Another was the many yoaki who lived long and knew of him. Whether it has been in combat or fun. Apparently, he did a lot of dancing when he was here, among other light-hearted things!
Still had little idea what he did with the cat martial arts school artifact. He might have to phyial track that shit down. He had prepared a spell that would allow him to track his steps. But he'd need to leave the building.
Our degrees are a non-aggression pact with the one known as the tri beast, Samuela Vegal. Do you agree with this decision?" Sam gave a small bow, "Of course. I have no interest in warring against you or your people. sparinng maybe," he assumed they had little in full-on fighting him; he has a record of taking on large groups.
His chances of winning were up in the air, but his chances of causing mass damage were clear and large. So they decided it was best to leave him be. It was not going to be worth whatever cost he dragged out of the people who attacked him. "Then let up, celebrate. Signing the paper with the gods and forces as our witnesses. Let mana itself bind us to our words!"
The parliament cheered, and Sam raised a fist before quickly retreating to his group. Tyrone was just ignoring everything going on. More focused on his coursework, and some kind of a raid game. He vaguely paid attention to that while they waited for the other papers to come up. At the same time, the entire parliament led the way to a large banquet hall where food was being brought out.
"I smell many good things," Sam barely waited to start piling on his plate. Weighing it down with food. Maybe a bit too much, seeing as Danielle actually bulked a bit at its weight." dude!"
"Sorry," he waved an apology while rushing over. The paper was sitting on a large orange silver oak table. Two mana crystal pens, walking up, he sat across from the kyubbi. For a moment, they posed for many pictures; if Sam had weakened his eyesight or he might have been blinded for a moment. The Kyubbi moved first. Raised a tail, she wrapped it around a pen. Lifted it, then with grace, she scratched her name with flowing words and symbols. She set the pen down.
Reaching forward, Sam could feel his excess mana being pulled into the pen, forming a powerful binding ink. he wrote his name, not the name he was known by now, not the name the actor gave him, not he name his teacher called him.
The one that came from his par- creators, gene donors. His original name, the one he wanted forgotten and buried in history. But it was still his original name, no matter how many new names he used. he couldn't change the power of his first name.
"...that is an interesting name," the kyubie mumbled softly, observing the way he slightly trembled as he wrote it. "Call me by it ever, and we can forget the contract." It wasn't a threat; it was a warning. That name had too many bad memories tied to it that Sam wasn't sure he could control himself.
"Very well, she chucked as the paper glowed magically, swirling around them, around the engineer building and all its people, like the northern lights. Sam rolled his fingers through the power, feeling it even as it started binding him to the words on the paper.
He didn't resite, no one did, and before they knew it, he power returned to the paper." Bring this down to the records. She headed it over to a small three-tailed fox before turning to everyone." The contract is signed, now let us celebrate peace! And the success of diplomacy. "
The crowd roared, and Sam weakened his hearing as he stepped back towards his food, nibbling on a few things. "Oh wow!" That was flavor, then he was expecting, greatly balanced as well. he continued to eat even though it was almost twice his weight in food. Before he stopped ignoring the people trying to mingle with him.
Now that the contract was signed, many more people were assured he wouldn't just randomly smack the shit out of them. Some of them were just going for some small talk, which he was fine with.
He was not fine with how long they carried on these conversations without much substance. 'Don't mention the boat again, don't mention the boat again!' They mentioned the boat again, Sam downed the rest of his punch before stepping away to refill. His most used excuse tonight. He looked over the large selection, but not a drop of alcohol, though.
Sam had made it clear how badly he reacted to the beverage. So they went with just about everything else; they were serving some very fancy milkshakes that his parents were very much into. Tyrone was on his third float. Not that he blamed him, the Yukionos had prepared excellent ice cream.
"Let's have some lemonade variations," he decided after a moment. Picking up a glass, he moved to the meat table, picking up some choice cuts before getting some salad. "Some rye looks good," that and a bit of jam before he turned to the milling, where other people came up to talk to him.
Thankfully, it wasn't boats; on the other hand, there are so many hobbies that they just wanted to brag about cars, planes, and clothing. These people had so much stuff." Is hoarding a normal thing with people who live so long?"
"It's not hoarding," a panda-looking yokai commented." It's only hoarding if you're a dragon, or if it negatively affects your quality of life. I collect these things because, honestly, they remind me of a friend I had a few years back. He really likes these hoodies and said I look so cute in them. Just kept wearing and buying more, I guess."
"Then there are things that are tired to memory," a 6-tailed fox commented as she drank down a malt. When you live so long, good memories become like gold. Essentially, of the people you can no longer meet, everyone at the table winced.
"Yeah, I have more than a few items like that." Sam could just list some off the top of his head. Some old movie manuscripts. A small candy wrapper, a stuffed bear. Really, it was kind of amazing all the things that held memory. Big or small, sighing." I hope I don't collect a bunch of planes. What even would I do with them?
"Start a plane business." Sam would have said yes if he didn't already have so much shit going on. "Maybe if ii have time in fifty years or something." The panda shrugged, and they started talking about art.
The panda liked paintings, and Sam himself liked a bit of everything. Mostly things that evoked happy emotions, it might be because of his early life. But he didn't particularly like images of despair. Eventually, Sam pulled away and went over to join Daniel as he rubbed shoulders with more than a few rich yokai.
"Doing business?" Sam asked, and Daniel smiled, his skinny behind smirking." Why, Sam, it sounds like you're accusing me of something." The raven scuffed," Nothing, no one else is trying to do anything at the moment." Daniel snickered, putting away the holoscreen that held the contracts he had gained so far.
These yokai were old, and a lot of them had gained a considerable amount of knowledge and/or finance over the years. He had started by asking around about curses. trying to see if he could find any help for his family. "met some interesting people and thought we might be able to help each other." Sam laughed, leaning against him. "Well, I wish you the best. Right now, I've got a different problem."
"What, too many conversations?" Sam groaned, "I feel like I'm being targeted. They keep giving me emotional whiplash?" Danielle made a question noise and Sam explained. They kept going into a topic about loving life habits and activities. This brought Sam back and forth between the sinking feeling about his real age and the relief that he wasn't alone.
Do you know what it was like to think about all the people you've left behind? Seeing a place where a place you once lived stood. A house turned into a restaurant, a store turned into a park. The memories that chased you into the night.
How this ache of alone, isolation. No one around you could really hope to understand it when you were physically older than they and their parents. Followed by the relief of meeting someone who understood, someone who knew how to cop and was willing to give advice?
"That's nice, got any phone numbers?" Sam chucked, most of them don't use phones." Now Danile had to ask why on earth that was, "they're old, you know, someone doesn't feel like trying to stay up to date with ever-changing tech. Which I understand, do you know I still don't know how to use several modern pieces of tech."
"Oh, we are fixing that," Daniel grumbled," I'll sic Tyrone on you." Sam snickered." he is quite a tech fan," he remembered all of the peace of tech Tyrone had shown him over the years. "You know I might just tell him to get him talking." Daniel rolled his eyes, "Better bring snacks." Sam smiled, leaning against this fright, who only rolled, so Sam wasn't leaning on his shoulder blade.
They stayed like that for a while, the people speaking with Daniel being a bit more cautious, knowing the beast of three was standing right there. At some point, Tyrone showed up, squeezing himself between them to hide. "Where were you?"
[under the salad table,] he texted. Sam shrugged before checking on him over, making sure he was unhurt and that he had eaten something, then encouraging him to eat a bit more. Even if it was just from the desert table. He could see his parents at, feeding each other bits of food. Absolutely smitten with each other. Not that he expected anything else from them.
Leaving them to their own peace, he watched as people partied. Some came to him as the main dance started. mutible coming up to him, trying to get him on the dance floor. Sam wasn't sure how he felt dancing with them; he knew he had danced here before, but he couldn't remember any of the moves. Also, he didn't feel like dancing with strangers tonight.
"So do you want to dance with me? Tyrone mumbled into Sam's ear." If you're willing," Sam replied, watching the people gliding across the dance floor. Adding their own flair to the moves. Shaking their tails, fluttering their wings, or even letting their elements around them. The snow fluttering around the Yukionos. The water around the kappas.
"Yeah, I think I can dance. You've taught me." Sam blinked, realizing that he had, in fact, taught Tyrone to dance. It was mostly to get the smaller male moving around in his house. A middle kind of exercise that was fun, Tyrone was rather adept at it."People might start watching. Are you sure you can handle that?"
Tyone hesitated for a long moment before hesitantly nodding. "Well, alright. We'll step off the moment you get uncomfortable. Tyrone nodded as they moved to the dance floor. Starting at the edge of it before slowly swaying to the music. Tyrone slowly gained confidence, and old muscle memories awakened in Sam. 'How many times have you danced?' he privately wondered as he led Tyrone into a slightly more complicated dance.
'If this is something I learned from the witch or from Defi. Something I observed out there in the world. He wasn't sure, but he was having fun, and he could tell Tyrone was enjoying himself. Dipping the younger male, Sam pulled him into a spine.
"Wow!" Tyrone couldn't help but shout. Sam was starting to move faster. Not too fast for Tyrone to keep, but it was no longer the leisurely pace. Not that Tyrone found himself minding, it was fun. Excited as they moved to the rhythm of the music.
Sam was having such fun dancing, twirling Tyrone, he almost stopped when he felt a spike of lust. With a blink, he flooded his eyes with lust energy, causing his pupils to change shape. The hearts looked around until he found the spike of lust, focused on a couple that was now half-grinding against each other. Well, he assumed they were a couple from the way there was wearing matching bands around their wrists.
'Okay, do I have to interfere?' They were getting a little too intimate, embarrassing, but not exactly dangerous. A few minutes later, someone got punched." No, I've got to do something about that." Dipping Tyrone, he turned around and blasted them with out on lust energy. Drawing their attention to him.
Sam didn't let them get further than that as he reached out his power, wrapping around their overflowing lust and pulling. Only to be met with a surprise amount of actual force. "Oh, picking up Tyrone, he lifted him into the air. 'Its density has changed, and it binds pretty tightly to them.' Well, he's going to have to break it then,' his energy gained a sharpness similar to the shard of night.
'Cut!' he commanded. The blade moved, face slicing through the energy.' Well, that was less than I was expecting,' should have practiced with the manipulation of lust.' Basic energy manipulation had fallen by the wayside with everything. 'Well, so time let the present.' So he slashed again, and again, adding power and refining it.
Until their lust was back to manageable levels. Right before someone else suddenly spiked.' Well, that certainly is a plan,' he realized as he conjured another sword. But even as he did his best, it seemed the spikes continued as they danced.