Levi is absolutely not a party person. He is, however, very much a free food person, and since someone he trusts had talked the party up to him -- in addition of explaining all about the costume aspect of it -- he'd decided to show.

It's certainly a good thing Billy speaks, because Levi may not be able to recognize his face through all that paint, otherwise.

"Randvi told me about it," he says, as if he somehow has to explain himself being here, and adds in a bit more of a mutter, "I helped make the cake."

It's perhaps a little bit of an overstatement, but Levi does like her. Randvi has a certain practicality about her that he appreciates and a lot of people who come from places with 'electricity' seem to lack.

"I'm not," he retorts, because in his mind that title is reserved to someone running their own bakery and churning out flawless sweets every day. "I just know how to bake some things."

He wouldn't want to trick anyone into thinking he makes an honest living, perhaps. Billy is right, of course; it's not exactly a very common skill, but then, Levi isn't a guy particularly concerned about what's considered manly, either. You learn to cook or you starve, simple enough. Baking is a slightly different beast, of course. It's not about mere survival at that point; it's something extra, something fancy.

"I haven't seen many cakes overall," Levi admits. "But I had some good friends with a sweet tooth, and not a lot of money." So he decided to try making sweets himself, and, well, after a few attempts he had it down well enough.

"Of course, this place makes everything more difficult." The lack of ingredients for one, he's still not entirely sure the replacements Chloe and others scrounged up were going to work well, but he hasn't seen anyone spit it out so far, so it must be alright.

"Like bathing," Levi supplies helpfully, his expression flat. It wasn't going to stop him, of course, but that didn't mean he wasn't annoyed by the fact he had to manually heat up buckets of water any time he wanted to clean up properly. And that's not even getting into the food situation - Levi is used to scarcity, but it's especially widespread here. There's nothing to steal if shit doesn't grow in ice, either.

He nods once, contemplative. "That was the thought behind this, I believe," he says. A few people have expressed similar sentiments to him; he can't disagree. It's always nice to have some reason to celebrate between all the bullshit going on, even if the celebration is merely eating some slightly less shitty food.

"Speaking of which... the poster said you got married." It doesn't sound like a question with his even tone, but he seems to want a confirmation of some sort.

Levi is a little confused by the apparent surprise. Surely the guy had to know about his own marriage? He doesn't seem to look much different from anyone else here, but perhaps his kind is some sort of a lineage that isn't immediately apparent. Perhaps he doesn't want to discuss it.

The exact meaning doesn't occur to Levi yet; workers were for sale to anyone in the Underground and many of them were shit on for it regardless, and topside didn't seem to think about it much either, though he supposed he didn't really know of anyone in a position of power that was known to prefer the same sex. Perhaps it could become something of a scandal in those crowds if it wasn't reserved to some eccentric aunt or uncle in a noble family, but as far as he was aware the regular folk either didn't care or it varied person to person or neighborhood to neighborhood.

"You don't need a ceremony," he assures. "It's something you shared; that's what matters."

At least he thinks so. He doesn't exactly think highly of marriage, having seen many sham ones in his life, but he supposes the good sort would be something like that, about partnership and sticking together through thick and thin. He can think of a few friendships of his that somewhat match the profile.

Takes one to know one. Levi's face likewise tends to change little regardless of the emotions he's feeling, but his thoughts and feelings are always reflected in his eyes, as long as one knows to look at them.

He takes a moment to consider, the word rather clearly foreign to his ears.

"Can't say I heard the name before." Maybe he's met or heard of someone named Kristen or something of the sort, but this sounds like a specific big thing of some sort.

Even so, he's not exactly the religious type, regardless of what it may be called, so Billy isn't wrong about that.

Levi may have never forced into a Mass himself, but he's vaguely aware that some people do that. Some people who worship the Walls, that is, the Walls that they're all trapped inside of (which, philosophically, is perhaps not that different from any religion). It's a whole thing, with its own church and pastors and no doubt treasury that bloats with donations from those living cushily in Sina while the simple townspeople barely ward off starvation.

"We have some people like that," he says contemplatively, then shrugs. He's hardly the expert on Paradisian law, the Underground having its own set of rules (or the lack of) for the most part. "Never really cared about marriage, so I can't tell you the details. You need to sign some papers, I guess. Some have a ceremony, some don't. Some can't afford either and simply live together, pair in everything but law."

That immunity of societal pressure might just be it. Who cares what anyone else thinks? So long as they don't have the means to weaponize them, those people can shove their opinions up their asses.

Levi stares back, his expression shifting into a slight frown as he changes his posture a little, as if he were getting stiff limbs for staying still this long. It's not the most comfortable of topics, but also not something he actively avoids.

"Dunno," he says, a bit slowly, as if he's still thinking about it as he speaks. "Didn't feel the need to, I guess. People like me don't usually marry."

There's plenty of guesses for what exactly people like him might be. Gay? Poor? Disinterested? Criminal? Could be any or all of those, and it wouldn't make it wrong. Not a lot of marriage in the Underground, and he'd spent nearly all of his time topside at the military, concerned about bigger problems, like saving humanity.

He's free to make whatever assumption he wants. Levi doesn't find any of them offensive, and it's basically the truth anyways, though if someone explained it to him he'd probably say he's not anything. There had been times when he'd felt a spark of something for a select few, but with the neverending fighting for survival or for humanity, he has never been in a position to do anything about it.

He makes a vague noise of agreement. "Probably ought to start with that, yeah," he confirms. "Looks like it worked out for you, though. Here."

He still doesn't say congratulations, but he does shove a gift at Billy's chest -- a nice linen bag of dried herbal "tea" he's scavenged from the local plants during the warmer months, after careful reading of flora identification books from the library. It tastes quite close to black tea, in his opinion, though obviously the decency bar is much lower here.

Perhaps they should organize a tea afternoon at some point. Tea and British Potatoes for everyone. That would probably be an even bigger hit than this party!

"Maybe," Levi agrees with a slight shrug. "But it's not every day that you get hitched. Shit, I always thought gifts are half the reason people do it."

Levi quirks an eyebrow at first, unsure whether that's supposed to make the proposal fake or something.

"It's none of my business," he answers simply, then considers for a moment.

"And wedding gifts say nothing about why he's in it." He means, of course, the relationship. Whether or not a marriage ceremony has other reasons, marriage isn't usually the reason two people get together in the first place. It's supposed to be encouraging, but who knows if Billy will pick up on that intended message.