Celebrate late into the night.

You do as suggested, and change to your casual attire. Though your armour and the rest are comfortable, this is a noticeable improvement.

Sitting upon a large rock is K'iina's CRT television, and then on an end table brought out to rest beside it is the SNES console. Both power cables snake out to a strange hodgepodge of glowing crystals, stone, and metal, that you can't quite make sense of yet, though spread out over a flattened segment of the machinery is Fava on her back. It's likely she's been working on power sources for some time now, ever since the creation of the GameBoy Colour's batteries, and especially when it was said the Sky Warren would eventually run out of its original fuel source native to the lands across the ocean.

The flower-covered crude bench has been moved over to face it.

You sit with the newly mended controller in your hands. Squished against both sides of you are Lynx and Vyzia on the left and right, and then past the latter is K'iina the Empress of Fire. Lo and behold, the TV boots up as it's meant to, and after making sure it's on the right channel and the game is slotted into the console, you fire it up, the menu theme blasts from the tiny speakers.

Some people gather to watch. You take turns, at first with a "winner swaps out" strategy, but eventually it comes just whoever wants to play, even others who come. You wonder if you can find others. Ealdorman, also known as Isaac Hawkins, is a collector of Earthen curiosities. He may have more, or know where you find them, though you have no real means of contracting him or any Circle of the Unicorn member who doesn't frequent their hall in Tolis. Though as the night proceeds, Lynx shares her manga collection, and reads all she's learned. Not only does she follow the story far better now, but she seems to have learned quite a bit of English. Only a couple issues are written in Japanese. Most are translated copies. She takes pride in sharing the exploits of Goku, or the spicy romance stories, filled with girls calling guys idiots in a number of comedically embarrassing scenarios.

Those intoxicated don't do too well at the game. You and K'iina sweep any who face you, so eventually you leave it to others. Through chaos and frantic button-mashing, Eva unintentionally triggers a Fatality and absolutely freaks out with excitement and awe. Though all in all, people are quite surprised by the blood and ****. Not to say most haven't seen their fair share of graphic scenes, but to see such a cartoony display so brazenly is a spectacle. It's just like how it was when those games were first coming out. Niki loves the idea, but she struggles to understand even a lick of it. Amara though doesn't much care for the bloodshed. She does, however, say she wishes she could heal them, which sound sweet, but you see a devious twinkle in her innocent eyes when she says it that no other sees.

The air is filled with music. Though there are no professional musicians amongst your numbers, some of the traders who were invited brought instruments and play as best as they can. There are some allies of yours who attempt to join in beyond off-key singing and stumbling dance moves, such as Amara who isn't so bad with the harp, though she only performs some basic melodies, and Bek, who at first people took as banging rocks and stone as something silly and expected of a brutish warrior, but he actually is a very talented percussionist.

While the others are having fun, Xiaoqing approaches, still garbed in her nearly full-body covering. You're still the only one besides Captain Silver and Aak'aba who know of her true identity. All others know her as the stoic boy Xue. Though you see her as the fair, beautiful girl she is, and one of the only others you've met who came originally from Earth.

The two of you talk to the side--conversation masked by loud chatter and laughter.

"So you've adjusted well to Absoterra I see," she says, casting a distant gaze over the party-goers. "Met and befriended many. Had more adventures than I even know about."

"I haven't even been here half a year yet I feel like I've adventured for a lifetime," you reply.

"I understand the feeling. Though I have been here longer than you, it's been a strange time. One day, at a dark lonely time in my life, I went for a walk in the woods near my home. There was a cave. I didn't mean to fall in... I think. But when I woke up, I was in an entirely new world. I searched for a portal or something to return, but there was nothing. I still don't know how I got here, but I have heard tellings of something called Isekai Theory. The concept of people and objects finding their way over from Earth to Absoterra. Sometimes by magical experimentation here. Other times, unknown."

"I was kidnapped, by a woman named Breiah. I got up one morning, was pulled through a portal, and then I don't remember anything. I think they sedated me and strapped me down, because for an unknown amount of time, I was experimented on. It's probably good that I don't have any memories of that. I don't know what they did, but I was changed forever. I woke up again in the fields outside Avana with some skills I didn't have before, and eventually I learned I had been given an entirely custom made class."

"... Such a thing is possible? What do you mean?"

"The Demon King Elok Daven was teamed up with Breiah. They used me and another man I know as text subjects. The class I was given, Demon King, gave me most of the spells I have today, but everything changed at 10th level. I almost lost myself. I didn't, thankfully, but I wasn't able to level further after that. But because of my weird body, I've found other ways to become stronger. Honestly, it's hard to know where to begin if we're sharing adventures beyond that. So much has happened."

"Makes you crave a McDonald's burger or something once in awhile, right?"

"Or even just, I don't know, the ability to play some music for myself."

"You don't have a bard?"

"Weirdly enough, I do not."

She sits herself down gently in the grass. Then she pats the ground beside her. "Come. The night is still young. If you share stories, I'll return the favour."

The two of you spend time with one another. You share random bits of what you can remember, though both of you have had a few drinks already. She tells you the tale of how she stopped a raid of goblins before they were able to reach an unsuspecting village, of when a giant gorilla was let loose and started destroying a city, and of all the journeys she's been on with the Silver Hunters--cursed treasure guarded by skeletons, a statue on an island guarding an ancient ruin by way of riddles, and the time a treasure map they were following turned out to be a mimic, teamed up with the treasure chest which was also a mimic. The way she speaks, it feels almost like she's getting something off her chest. None of it is a secret per se, but she's talking to you like an old friend. Perhaps the **** loosened her up, or maybe there's something to be said about you both being from Earth. She seems to care much for Captain Silver, though there's a different sort of connection between the two of you.

"So you've given a lot of outcasts a place to stay. Ghosts. Demons. Otherwise strange individuals," says Xiaoqing.

Right on cue, Anastasia elegantly spins into view right in front of where the two of you are sitting. She raises her mug and slurps down the rest, breathes a sigh of relief, and beams a smile bright enough to illuminate the darkest night. Though as for her garb, she seems to be wearing Amara's conjured Midnight Gown instead of any normal clothing. The way she moves in it, she looks like a divine flower, radiant by the light of flickering flames beneath a sky of stars. Her face is completely red, almost as much so as her hair. "Th-This drink is quite magical. I've never f-felt anything like it before."

"You've never drank before?" you ask.

"N-Not like this~!" She giggles, and then spins around--dress rising up perhaps a little higher than it should. The skin beneath is nearly visible in the light, with points at the end of her breasts quite prominent. "I mean I knew about it. I'm not stupid. But I never had the desire to partake of such a thing. This is wine! Do you see?" she asks, tipping the mug forward as some spills out into the grass.

"Yes. I see," you say with a chuckle. "I'm so glad you're enjoying yourself, Ana. Let off all that steam. Dance your heart out."

"I will. Thank you, Kyle," she says with a bow. Then she turns her head to the side, screams, and falls back.

Mela the ghost is hovering there. She screams as well, shaken by the reaction.

Before Anastasia can plummet to the ground, you leap up with incredible speed and catch her in your arms. She looks to you with a dizzied and flustered smile.

"I greatly apologize for that," says Mela. "I am unable to become intoxicated, but I am very much enjoying myself. Still, I should mind where I appear lest I scare the spirit right out of somebody's body."

After Ana is able to stand on two feet again, she speaks up. "It's all right. I shouldn't have been so loud."

"And for a moment I thought somebody was in need of aid," comes a voice from the side. The graceful footwork of Lady Nyllia Tesgella strolls along the grass, between the flowers, with a body dressed casually besides a smaller sword sheathed to her hip--not her usual weapon, but something far easier to carry. "Not that I should fear. If one were to attack us now, it would be moreso a battle between ourselves of who will be given the honour of stopping them."

"For real," you respond. "Which godlike being gets to instantly smack the attacker away first?"

"Indeed." She looks you up and down, quite thoroughly. "You are looking good this night."

"Thank you, Nyllia. You look beautiful every night, though somehow each time I see you it's more impressive then before."

"Oh dear. I did not expect such a romantic response. Though I am now blushing, I would like to add that I did not just mean you are handsome. You have an aura about you. One that is strong, though not just by your body. Perhaps it's the connection you have with everybody here. You may have changed your clothing to something less formal, but you still stand out as a beacon of strength, whether people understand what they're sensing or not. I have witnessed much of what you have done, though have missed even more. Yet I can still safely say that you are the best of the men I have met on my journeys. Perhaps the greatest adventurer alive."

"Well now I'm blushing."

"Good. It is how I prefer you. Now come here a moment," she says before placing a finger to your chin, and guiding your head forwards to a gentle kiss. She then pulls away, though her eyes don't break contact. "Though one could say your previous accomplishment was not more grand than the fall of Elok Daven, I think after all that has happened, there is something more that makes this night feel more special, like one to forever remember. And I do not believe it will end anytime soon."

You turn your eyes for a moment to catch a glimpse of Fang, naked as the day she was born, sprinting past the bonfire and once again into the darkness. Then behind Nyllia, glowing purple bands are what you see before the pixie herself. Delphi is dragging both Eva and Malakae by collars around their necks. "You lost the bet fair and square, my puppies!" she shouts with a booming cackle. Then nearly running right into them is Summer. With an eager tug, she pulls her own dress down to free the bumblebees beneath, before pouring a jar of honey over her body. A moment later, Taiga grabs her and pulls her away. Then yet again, your attention is stolen by some shouting and gasping as the raging fire goes out with a hiss and plume of steam. The Lady of the Lake apologizes, and K'iina reignites it almost immediately. The actual target, Peony, is standing there soaking wet. It seems she asked to be blasted by water.

"No. I don't think it will either," you say.

Then from nowhere, the progenitor bunnyfolk Lepo warps in with a large barrel tied around her back. In her arms, she carries Feli. She places her girl down, gives her a kiss on the lips, and then a second, before untying the mysterious cask to let fall to the ground. She pats it and says, "This here is a special wine I guarantee none of you have ever tasted before! But I feel like this is a good night to have it, right?"

Everybody cheers, and the revelry continues all the way until daybreak.