Four Horsemen of the A-Party-lipse

Four entirely different buns… all in one place. Well… this was awkward.

It wasn’t as if the temperament of the environment was off, no; the statement commonly shared between the four gathered there was a simple matter-of-fact observation. An idol, a fireworks salesman, an archivist and a religious shop-owner walk into an establishment… well perhaps it wasn’t as awkward upon further observation, as other buns milled around the place to up the “party” mood. T’was festive enough for a little get-together!

How exactly did this come to happen, one would ask… the answer was simple enough in a way. After a successful early holiday modeling campaign wrapped up, Yukiou wanted to host a little get-together with the members of his staff and some of his friends to celebrate with some good food and a hearty ounce of cheer. Among the honored invitees were Kain (an honored late-night friend) and Dagasho (the very-dignified businessman who frequently supplied fireworks and practical flammable effects for the studios Yuki worked with); invitee rules were quite lax as per usual with Yukiou’s antics, so plus-ones and bringing fun dishes for everyone were A-OK… which is why Dagasho ended up bringing Calcifer along for the ride. The more the merrier, right? T’was odd for a bun like Cal to actually be okay with coming along, but Dagasho… was quite the pushy fellow—something something “you need to get outside, bud!” or something along those lines… and saying that enough in Cal’s ears was persuasive enough—so there they all were.

“Yay! I’m so glad you could make it, Sho… and with your friend!” The party was in full swing by the time Dagasho and Calcifer made it to the party venue; always an enthusiastic host, Yukiou immediately wandered over to shake each new guest’s hand. Off to the side Kain eyed the new arrivals up… though his eyes drifted to the objects in the new buns’ hands rather than their actual faces.
“For sure, Yuki. I brought these cookies I knew ya liked. Lemme know where ya want em… oh yeah, and this is—” Sho moved one of his hands to motion towards his plus one but Cal quickly stepped forward, throwing his hand towards Yuki for a handshake.
“Calcifer Ichabod VII, the Sanguineous Scourge Upon the Lands! I’ve graced your party with my presence and I bear only the best of offerings to be placed upon the potluck table.” Cal did the most grandiose bow he could with a charcuterie board in his other hand, and Yukiou gasped as he took up the totally cool and extremely fancy bun’s hand. Cal wasn’t lying about that board either—how expensive was that CHEESE?!

“Wooooaaaa… uhh yeah you can put that stuff over there!” Yuki motioned to the snack area; wordlessly Dagasho swooped in, taking both his and Cal’s contributions over… but not before winking both to Yuki and Cal.
“I’ll leave ya to it then! Thanks again for the invite, Yuki—if I ever need ya, I’ll probs be able to find ya.” The guy thought he was so slick, huh… Calcifer couldn’t help but roll his eyes, though quickly turned his attention back to the overly-excited idol who totally didn’t notice Sho’s playfulness.

“So, like, um… are you like some sort of noble? Do you own a plot of land and have like… umm, maids and stuff?” Yukiou’s sparkles were quite a bit more prominent as he took one of Calcifer’s hands in both of his own. “C’mere, show me where it is on the map…”
“I—erm—well I do not exactly—oh. Oh dear. T-there is no need to drag me—good hells…” Calcifer let out a sigh as he simply allowed himself to be dragged along; this was going to be quite the long night, wasn’t it?

…

From a distance, Dagasho watched Calcifer get dragged away by Yukiou and let out a gentle chuckle — young'uns will be young’uns after all. It really did make him happy to see ‘Danny’ get out like that—Murmur knows he wouldn’t’ve otherwise—so Sho couldn’t help but smile to himself as he slotted the food they’d brought where it’d fit onto the communal potluck table. Though… he didn’t expect to see a random hand slowly creep up from underneath the table as it reached for the cookies that Dagasho still had in his hands.

“HUH?” Dagasho’s exclamation of surprise went mostly unnoticed due to the hustle and bustle of the rest of the party; he quickly steadied his stance as to not lose grip of said cookies, and his tail lashed out to give the stranger’s hand a curt smack on the wrist.
“OW! Murmur’s teat, man! You couldn’t’ve just placed them down all civil-like?” From down below, a semi-familiar face crawled up; Kain rubbed the back of his hand, his pouty expression causing his face to crease a little more menacing-ly than intended.
“I mean, fella, that’s what I was intending…” Dagasho tilted his head upward ever so slightly to look at Kain, “—ya just gotta hold yer horses.”
“Ah. Um. Well. Uh… sorry.”

Even though Sho wanted to be a little more than mad at the guy for spooking him for (apparently) no reason, despite how scowly his face was he seemed to be genuinely apologetic for giving Sho a spook. With a sigh of reluctance, Sho patted Kain’s shoulder and put the box of cookies in his hands.

“Fine, fine. Here, since ya was eyein’ em. Er… name’s Dagasho, y’know, the fireworks guy. Well I’d assume ya’d know since yer at this party anywho. I feel like I’ve seen ya around, kid…” As Sho scratched his stubble with his now-free hands, he looked to Kain… who’d busied himself with attempting to shove as many cookies as possible into his mouth.
“… mmmpf—aah. Y-yeah. Yuki mentioned you every now and then. And yeah, I do things every now and then. Mostly Church stuff, but I won’t say no to other things. Um… I’m Kain. Nice to meet you, Mr. Dagasho.”
“Baah — just Sho’s fine, kid. Good to see ya know the meanin’ of hard work! Ya got a good head on yer shoulders.” Dagasho gave Kain a hearty pat on the back, causing the bun to cough up some cookie crumbs.
“A-ah, um. Well it’s nothin’ really…” Uh oh, was Kain getting suckered into some sort of discussion…
“Nah really! Ya got a sturdy enough build; do ya do any liftin’? Exercise? I can give ya tips on how ta build up stamina proper. It ain’t all just fireworks with me, though that’s what I’m most proud of! See…”

And as Dagasho talked on and on about protein and whatnot, Kain munched on his cookies… a small price to pay for chocolate chips…

…

Meanwhile on the other side of the party…

With a great sweep of his hands, Yukiou cleared off a cluttered table—filled with all sorts of random knick-knacks that subsequently clattered to the ground wholly unnoticed by other partygoers—and Calcifer watched as the odd idol unfurled a sizable map of Burrowgatory and its surrounding areas. It was… oddly detailed… a surprising little trinket stowed away in the recesses of this odd bun’s… “personal collection” so to say. And as Yuki started to talk on and on about who knows what, Cal couldn’t help but let his eyes stray to the other objects that’d dropped all around. Hey, wasn't that book a first edition of… ah! Cal quickly started snatching things up to prevent other guests from stepping on them—

“—and there’s a lot of really cool people around this area of the city, but there’s not really much land for a super-duper big o’le castle… ah Cal! You don’t have to clean all that up!” Finally noticing Calcifer’s plight, Yuki leaned down and tilted his head inquisitively. “The caretakers and my manager usually are the ones who clean that stuff up…”
“Sir Lodestar, you let other untrained hands touch these priceless artifacts? Nay, nay! You should be taking better care of your assets!” With an incredulous look, Cal waggled a finger in Yuki’s surprised face.
“Lodestar? Um…”
“Think of it not, Simple Lodestar. A name for your leadership and a name for your simplicity… to denote the way in which you so treat these—”
“Ohh, we’re giving each other nicknames! You can be Cal-kun!” Yuki’s smile was eager… and it didn’t even falter when Calcifer gripped Yuki’s cheeks with his one free hand.

“My word, how simple you are. This first edition of ‘Rabbit’s Almanac’—” Cal raised up the book in question.
“Oh yeah, that was a present! Is it like… important?”
“VERY MUCH SO!” Calcifer tapped the text against Yukiou’s nose, “Books like these aren’t in production quite as often with how modern technology is; prints like these are very important to preserve many different subculture of our bun-society!” With a proud fist, Cal thumped his chest.
“Oooooooh… and you keep a lot of things like that in your mansion?” Yukiou’s curiosity was genuine as he leaned in; Cal quickly spun the fellow around, placing a finger down upon the location of The Hoarde.
“Mansion it is not — I like to call it a repository, a well of knowledge for the general populace. If you ever desire to expand your little frozen mind beyond it previous boundaries, then—”
“OMG… you’re inviting me over to your place too?! And we just met… you’re literally just so cool, Cal-kun! Since that book’s important to you, you can have it and put it along with the other books like it so it can make friends too… and I’ll come visit it every now and then! Yay!”

Upon saying this, Yukiou took Calcifer up into his arms and began spinning him around in glee… effectively silencing anything else the archivist bun had to say with the sheer force of inertia… and dizziness. Oh dear…

…

All in all, the party turned out to be quite a hit between the four odd buns that spent their time there. Dagasho got to chat about exercise routines, Kain got to eat some good cookies, Calcifer got a new book for his collection, and Yukiou got to make a new friend.

Maybe… maybe Yukiou ought to host these sort of parties more often… at least, when his manager won’t give him a whole lecture over it at the end.