STARDROP CELEBRATION: FINAL DAY

[starhuemod]

LET'S PARTY!
premise | rules | taken | pick-up

A. Arrivals and Much More

You’re here because you were dropped somewhere that tried sending you home, or you're someone with a call to the heart to explore the vast universe. The buses run at odd schedules, so please pardon any interruptions! I hope you fellas make yourselves at home, here!

[ Marjorie’s whole speech rings through your ears as you begin to explore the area. It seems a few people who arrived on the TDM have already been here for a week, but you’re just a newcomer. So where are you when this all went down? Are you trying to get back on a bus that’ll take you home, or…?

B. Home Sweet Home

[ The dust has settled on the bus ride here, and you can’t help but notice that your farmland… well, it’s a mess. Rocks and grass everywhere, no matter which layout you were set with. You were given a set of tools, and the message that this land is yours to shape or change or build on no matter what you want, so long as it’s yours. The little crate by the edge of the house is what will hold your bounties from farming, collected nightly with money delivered to your mailbox the following day, like some kind of Produce Fairy visited.

The house is in alright shape. It’s not brilliant, but it has a kitchen, a bathroom, and a studio bedroom where all your belongings can be. It’s wide enough to accommodate several things until you upgrade it.

Sometimes you see a stray dog or cat at the edge of your property. Do you adopt it?

Anyway, it’s time to make what you will of your farm. ]


The Last Day Of
The Stardrop Celebration!
FESTIVAL PLAYLIST

[ Down a hill a little ways from Pelican Town is a remarkable festival set-up! Several attractions and vendors line the streets where everything is going down. Where will you go? ]

C. Food Stalls

[ Surrounding the entire property are dozens of food stalls, from all around the universe. Marjorie bussed in caterers from all around with a healthy sum of gold, and they’re happy to sell their wares in this strange place tonight. Where you might find octopus balls, you’ll also find kraken balls. Where you might find corndogs, you’ll find dogs selling corn.

It’s a veritable buffet! And the gold you’ve started with is more than enough to go shopping for food. Have fun! ]

D. Games

[ All manners of Carnival Games are set up! From throwing a baseball at bottles to catching goldfish with a paper net, everything you can dream of is here. There are even some unorthodox games, like dance-offs, karaoke, and a little bit of everything. Apparently, the NPC couldn’t choose who to go with what. It definitely makes for a big festival.

In addition to the above, there’s water gun races, squeaky duck ponds, skee-ball, target shooting, test your strength with a hammer, pitching speed, shooting hoops… and more! ]

E. Three-legged Race

[ You didn’t think this festival was going to go by without tomfoolery, did you? For the prize of 1,000 Gold, you can rally up a partner and get tied to them by the ankle, participating in a no-rules no-bars-held race. The winners will be randomized! But the real gift is going to be the fact that the ties around your ankles? Aren’t coming undone. You’re going to have to be tied together until 11 PM! ]

F. Fireworks

[ Errant magic and mishaps aside, you have to admit, the fireworks show at the end of it all is really something. Marjorie hired a pony for them, and the lights are as ethereal as they are non-traditional. It’s a good moment to snuggle up to someone or enjoy company with a new friend. ]

G. Wildcard

[ Exactly what it says! Make your own prompt. ]

[ OOC; Hello, everyone! This community is L I V E, from now on, you can make both network and action posts on this community, as well as use the notice board pinned to the top of the community! You're also welcome to make IC inboxes for one on one conversation and messaging! We hope you enjoy the community and if you need anything, please leave a note on the contact page! Thank you!

People who want to keep their CR from the test drive; you may! Your characters just arrived a little earlier than others! ]

Comments

[whisted]

c. spoilt for choice
[Most things have been creeping into feeling like they might be normal. Horatio isn't wearing the mud-smeared, blood-stained uniform he'd arrived in. He isn't sleeping squeezed into a crevice between rocks or holding his breath at every little noise. He's wearing comfortable work clothes that smell like happy dirt. He's got a bed, and a roof, and a task he's actually well-equipped to handle when he wakes up in the morning. By and large, the understanding that this is his new reality is properly settling in.

But this much food in one place?

It makes him feel small and just a bit lost. It keeps his lips pressed together as he wanders slowly, trying to process the wonderful attack on his senses that the food stalls are pouring out into the world. Apparently having his senses bombarded is enough to dampen his natural stoic inclination, because he actually lets himself drift into other people's personal space.]

--what's that?

d. choosing your battles
[None of the games are familiar. Then again, Horatio supposes, the things he's most used to wouldn't scale well. No one wants to monitor four or five knucklebone players simultaneously having a turn, the way people lobbing balls or picking up rubber ducks could be watched.

Most of the flashing lights are overwhelming, but there's a bank of rather antiquated Skee-Ball machines he finds himself drawn to all the same. The motion isn't familiar, and the results are unpredictable, but it's something that earns an unabashed laugh before very long.

Having fun is... fun.]

f. let your colors burst
[It isn't the cannon fire. It doesn't sound like the cannon fire. It doesn't look like the cannon fire.

But the celebration has worn Horatio out. His nerves, soothed by the past week, are still frayed enough at the edges to keep him glancing nervously up at the sky as he begins to wend his way home.

Which means, for the first time in ages, he's paying so little attention that he winds up walking smack into someone.]

C

[alloutoflove]

Dango!!

[ She says it brightly, almost proudly, even if she's not the one who made it. Dango, actually dango! It's been so long...!!

Well, no, it hasn't been that long, but she hasn't been in a position to make or have her own for a while. It's the three-colored sanshoku dango, which might be a bit of a private joke for herself and her friends, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still tasty. She brandishes the stick for a moment, like someone (very poorly) managing a sword, but then holds it up for better inspection.

Then she gets a good look at the boy, his stoic expression, and makes herself gentle both her voice and her expression. ]

They make it out of rice flour and sugar and red beans. Not too sweet, but still good for dessert or a snack. Would you like to try?

[whisted]

[The evening has been, thus far, slightly deadening to sudden movement, but the flourish still has Horatio falling back half a step. It isn't that the stick feels particularly threatening--particularly not when obviously covered in rather harmless looking food stuffs--but the edges of his nerves haven't quite settled.

Thank goodness the stranger softens a beat later. Thank goodness for a softer voice and quieter expression. It helps bring the tension back down out of his shoulders again.]

--red beans?

[Beans and sugar, as a combination, bring the faintly dubious edge of a frown to the corners of his lips.]

[alloutoflove]

Ah! I see that.

[ She's still careful to keep her voice gentle, especially when she sees how he relaxes in response. He's not the first skittish teenager she's met, but he's the first one she's been able to talk to as herself in years. Maybe it won't go well, but sabotaging herself in the first minute of interaction would be too sad...!

Still. She lifts her other hand slowly, shaking a finger and tutting. ]

Don't knock it till you've tried it! You might be surprised.

[whisted]

[Slow and quiet is easy enough. Slow and quiet and offering to share food is actually almost lovely. At any rate, it fits into how oddly comfortable this entire valley has been since his arrival.

His own hand lifts slightly, then hesitates again.]

How... do you eat it?

[Or, perhaps, more to the point: how do you share something like this?]

[alloutoflove]

When it's your own, you can just bite it off! [ Or if you're a dirty thief, she doesn't add, but her lips twitch at the private joke. Given how skittish he is, introducing the joke of your friends stealing your food is probably not the thing to do now. Maybe later. Maybe if he meets one of the Juzos.

So instead, she holds the stick out to him. ]

You can just pull the top one off, though! These won't have too much difference in the flavors, so you won't miss anything by taking the pink.

[whisted]

[Soft makes happy land easier. There's nothing overly aggressive about the faint twitch of lips and sedate offer to share. It isn't jarring against the sense of reality still clinging to his mind like a cobweb.]

Hm.

[There's still a beat before he reaches over, with the hesitance of someone who half-expects the food to be pulled away at the last second. If not, well, nothing to it but to carefully extract one of the doughy little balls and give it a careful bite.]

[alloutoflove]

[ Oh, he did it! Chisa has to resist the urge to say good boy or something, because again, that's a private joke with someone much more appropriate. For the moment, she holds the stick still and holds her breath a little, like one might when being approached by a wild animal. Her smile also goes briefly incredulous, but by the time he lifts his head she's schooled it back to a more encouraging sort of expression. She might be awful at hiding her negative moods, but it's at least relatively easy to take something that's mostly positive and just adjust it a little. ]

So! What do you think...?

[ "The pink one is definitely the best," why yes, of course, she thinks so too. No, there really isn't any difference in the flavors, so that's just another silly thought. ]

[whisted]

[It's not quite what he expected. It isn't at all like his conception of beans, mostly, although it's not far off from his understanding of sugar and flour. Not necessarily something to actively savor, but something to roll back and forth in his mouth slightly as he eats.

Trying new food might never lose its shine.]

...interesting.

[Not polite interesting, but genuinely interesting.]

[alloutoflove]

Once you're used to it, it's really good!

[ Honestly, his reaction is better than some people she's introduced to the concept of Japanese sweets. She can still remember the way her last set of neighbors made faces when they thought she wasn't looking. Too bad for them, the housekeeper sees all!

But since he's had his sample, she bites down on what's left of the first piece. ]

Maybe if I can get a nice kitchen set up, I'll try making them... it's been a few years since I tried.

[whisted]

Is it difficult?

[It doesn't seem, as he pops the rest of the sweet into his mouth, like it would be terribly complex to make. Like a dough, perhaps; all in the measuring.

Then again, some of the things he'd seen tonight looked like they might take a team of five a whole week to actually pull off perfectly.]

[alloutoflove]

Not for me! ♥ --Ah, though, that sort of thing was my specialty...

[ While she's years off of her prime, she'd been getting more practice in a Arden Grove. The kitchen in Willow had been well-stocked. And now that Juzo's no longer on his strict athlete's diet, she'd been experimenting a little more with sweets... ]

I was a housekeeper! I could still be one. So cooking was one of those things I did a lot, and I was good at it.

C

[lobsterquadrille]

[hello again, friend. this whole festival thing has the potential to go very poorly for easily-distracted Alec--but for now, the discordant tangling of sights, sounds, and smells has lulled him into a rather pleasant, dreamlike mood.

besides, he can always get behind food, especially food that he's never tried before. he looks up at Horatio from where he'd just sort of been standing and eating--and holds out his paper bowl of what appears to be a pile of fried tentacles, with pink breading.]

Strawberry fried squid. [he says pleasantly:] I think it's terrible, but I'm not sure.

[whisted]

[Even newly-familiar faces are a pleasant anchor in overwhelming moments like this. Having something less unnerving to focus on helps dull the rest of the festival into a soft, fairly pleasant blur rather than an assault on the senses.

Closer examination of the bowl--and the appropriate associated words--don't particularly clear up the strange clash of scents and odd clutter of appearance.]

But-- still eating it?

[lobsterquadrille]

[it may help that Alec is somehow less unnerving-looking than he was the first time they’d met. his clothes are more or less the same, but he’s swapped out his lumpy scarf for a large grey coat that seems to be several sizes too big for him. it makes him look like a kid presenting to wear grown-up clothes. he laughs softly and picks up an especially curly piece of pink, fried cephalopod.]

Yes, you see, just when I think they really are awful, they start to taste good? The strawberry aftertaste compliments the salt, perhaps?

[he pops one into his mouth, sounding very amused as he does a marginal job of talking around his food.] But then I have another one, and I’m fairly certain they’re awful again. Would you like to try some?

[he offers the bowl up to Horatio—because there is plenty, and he shouldn’t eat all of it himself.]

[whisted]

[Trying new foods is still stunningly novel--and, frankly, even just the description of this is enough to press Horatio's lips together in something like concern.

But food is food. Wasting it has never been an option, intellectually speaking.

His lips don't quite unfold from their thin line even as he hesitantly takes an offered tentacle, examining it more closely once it's separated from the mass of its brethren.

And then, admittedly, studying Alec again a bit incredulously. This is the choice you made, friend?]

[lobsterquadrille]

[Alec giggles.]

A frog was selling them.

[as if that... somehow explains his terrible purchase. it doesn’t.

but he eats another one anyway.]

[whisted]

[That... is worth actually making a syllable about.]

--what?

[Not that Horatio isn't going to take a careful nibble. It's just the sort of sentence that prompts questions.

Not everyone comes from a place where frogs have personality and autonomy sufficient to vend crafted food items. Or places where squid is a readily-accessible food source.]

[lobsterquadrille]

[the calamari, as advertised, does not taste very good. the individual parts are kind of okay, but altogether the combination of artificial strawberry and bland, rubbery squid was a terrible idea.

Alec, for his part, is very used to encountering simply impossible things--but he also usually dismisses them as daydreams, the side effects of an unsettled mind. this time, though, he's really sure. there was literally a frog-person there.]

It's true! I thought they were wearing large glasses at first, but they really had these large, bulbous eyes, and green skin... [he is now miming, with his other hand, the shape of very large eyes on the sides of his own head.] And then I saw them handing out food, and they had frog hands. Webbed, slimy...

[he laughs again, eats another chunk of fried carnival food.]

They were wearing a fancy cloak, so I got the impression they might be a wizard, or some-such thing.

[whisted]

[The laughing is nice. The squid... is something, but the laughing and comfortable chattering is actually quite nice. At any rate, it's nice enough to keep Horatio's face comfortably blank as he munches on the slightly chewy tentacle.

For his own part, Horatio has a very pedestrian loaf of bread tucked under his arm. The equitable thing to do is to break off a bite and offer it to the other boy questioningly.]

A frog wizard.

[It's almost a question as well, but at this point, it's getting a bit hard to be thoroughly surprised.]

[lobsterquadrille]

[the small offering of bread seems to surprise him a little, as he is not used to being offered things much at all... but after figuring out he isn't just misunderstanding some other gesture, he takes the bread with a thankful smile. it is a very kind thing of them to do, he thinks.]

A frog wizard, yes. A salio... magicus.

[and then he looks very proud of himself for remembering his Latin (even though the forms he picked were entirely wrong), and proceeds to put a piece of calamari on his piece of bread and pop the whole thing into his mouth.]

[whisted]

[Sharing is better than unilateral giving. Sharing is where friendship can seep into the cracks. Sharing does not, however, stop Horatio from wrinkling his nose just slightly.]

That seem... normal to you?

[Little things like sleeping in a comfortable bed had been easy to adjust to. Medium things like frog wizards were taking longer.]

[lobsterquadrille]

[Alec also wrinkles his nose slightly, perhaps regretting his impulsive choice to eat both foods in one go.

or maybe it's the question about what is considered "normal", which is kind of a complicated subject for him. after a moment of dissatisfied chewing, he shakes his head.]

No, certainly not. Where I'm from, frogs are just frogs, and wizards are only found in books and fairy tales told to children.

[--but, he's not "where he's from" right now, so he quickly smiles again.]

Which is precisely why I had to investigate.

c, but of course

[hardballsy]

[Has Josh already pondered the story of Persephone in the Underworld? Yes.

Has he considered fairies? Of course.

Is any of that enough to have stopped him? Absolutely not. He's two bites into what he thought looked enough like a doughnut to probably be one, but has instead turned out to be another pastry entirely: equally delicious, filled with a jam he can't quite place, the outside flaky and much less sweet than anticipated.

It's wonderful.

And he has no manners.]

Mm-i 'ono.

[whisted]

[Were those words? It's difficult to say. Really, it's been a lucky thing, with everyone here apparently drawn from beyond his comprehension of the universe, that everyone's been understandable so far.

But this? Incomprehensible.

Unless that's the name of the food. It's enough of a possibility that Horatio's features stay paralyzed in their usual stillness and faint uncertainty.]

...come again?

[That's polite, surely. Safe, certainly.]