starhuevalley | STARDROP CELEBRATION: FINAL DAY

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STARDROP CELEBRATION: FINAL DAY

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. ]

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

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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.

[Asking questions isn't, and has never been, Horatio's forte. Keeping to himself (particularly keeping the ideas that run through his mind now and then to himself) has been much easier and more successful way to live his life.

But he's never really met someone who responded so cheerfully and softly before. It's apparently inspiring him to push his luck.]

A-- housekeeper?

[ She cocks her head at his question, quizzical. She's known plenty of people who've been confused about what the actual duties of a housekeeper entails, but not someone who seems completely unfamiliar with the word. Hm. ]

Yeah... someone who manages the house for you! Um, usually for rich people, because they're too [ ~~lazy~~ ~~bad at it~~ ~~invested in image~~ ] busy, but they still want a nice home, you know? Cleaning, laundry, cooking... that sort of thing. I'm good at all of that!

[Understanding seems to start clicking at 'usually for rich people.' It wasn't that Horatio had really understood wealth disparity before arriving at the Capitol, but it had settled into his worldview much more quickly than most of what happened here in Starhue.]

...hm.

[Is it possible for a single syllable to convey how dubious it seems that someone who can't clean and cook for themselves could possibly be a functional human being?

Yes.]

[ Oh yes, that says a lot, and she can't help but laugh a little. Honestly, she's wondered about that herself, especially given some of the clientele she's worked for. Who needed dramas on TV with the things she'd witnessed, just by being around? The housekeeper has seen Too Much, in her time. ]

Yeah... it's like that. I liked my work, though! And now that I'm here, it'll probably be useful. If nothing else, I can help people out if they need it.

[The cheerfulness really is reassuring. The constancy of it is slowly adding to the sense of calm hanging in the air here.

It isn't quite enough to get Horatio smiling, but it lets his shoulders shift and relax fully again.]

That's... kind.

[And even a place like this needs kind, surely.]

Kind, huh...

[ She has to pause to turn that idea over. Kind... that was a reputation she'd built for herself before, with the worst intentions. Even if that hadn't been entirely her fault, the end results had been the same, right? She has to take responsibility for that. She might have left that world behind, but she's still herself.

The next sound she makes isn't quite a laugh, but it's close. ]

Ahh, maybe that's what I want. It doesn't matter where you go, everywhere could use a little more kindness.

[Everywhere needs kindness. Even a place like this, Horatio suspects, will devolve without kindness.

Which means, after a beat, that it's clearly his turn. There's only the one package sticking out of his backpack, but it's easy enough to reach around and break off a piece of bread to offer the woman.

It's a little thing, but it's hopefully kind enough.]

--Eh?

[ It'd be a lie to say she's not surprised by the gesture. For one, she's used to being the one to offer food, not be offered it, and for two... well, given how she'd startled him at first, she'd expected him to still be a little wary. He's not the first quiet boy she accidentally steamrolled in her enthusiasm.

But after a beat for that confusion she smiles and accepts the piece. It's sweet. ]

Ah, thank you! ...I'm Yukizome, by the way. I should have said so earlier! I was a little distracted.

[It's eternally amazing, how far a cheerful voice and a lack of sudden movements can soothe a frayed youth. It's also eternally amazing that this place simply has enough food for everyone to have more than what they need.

'Fair' is as new as 'kind,' but Horatio is already becoming a big fan of it.]

...Horatio.

Horatio... Horatio-kun!

[ Her first attempt at his name isn't great; her accent slurs the syllables together, horashiio, but the second is closer. It's at least recognizable, even after she appends the suffix.

And then she nibbles on the piece of bread, because it is nice to have something that's not as sugary as the mochi. ]

It's nice to meet you! I'm pretty new here, so I'm still trying to learn where everything is and meet people.

[It's certainly enough that it would pop his head up in a crowd. It's also certainly better than any attempt at her name will be.]

Most everyone is... fairly kind.

[Which made this sort of exploration much safer.]

Mmm... it's better here than where I came from.

[ Not Koriko, not Arden Grove, but the Japan she'd known. She hadn't been in either of those places long enough to really feel like they could claim ownership of her, though Arden Grove had come close. But ultimately, when she thinks of home, her mind still goes back to Hope's Peak. ]

That was a place where the worst of people came out... the worst of the world, honestly. Things are already better here.

[Another soft wave of relief seems to pass through his shoulders. Maybe this will wear off over time, but it hasn't yet fully set in, he expects.]

Isn't that... why most of us are here? From... times and places that were... inclined to cruelty?

So I've heard! ...We were a little dubious about it at first, to be honest.

[ She drops her gaze for a moment, her expression more pensive now. ]

But so far, it's been pretty nice. If it lives up to the advertising, that's all I'd want.

[His breath comes out in a puff. Even this past week couldn't fully get rid of 'dubious.']

Everyone says to be hopeful. [And to enjoy freedom. Both were difficult.] And... try to keep it this way, I suppose.

Hope, huh...

[ Ahhh, there it is. The double-edged blade. There's an irony in it, that she's spent so long building up a false concept of hope -- "Hope" -- that she'd deliberately weaponized it. Now that her mind is clear, she can look back and actually understand how warped it'd become, and that is an awkward feeling when trying to discuss the topic at all.

Especially with a stranger who sounded like he needed the reassurance more than she deserves. ]

Hope is a funny thing, I think. It's different for everyone! But if you can find your own, then yeah. I think it's good to hold onto it, even if it's hard.

[It's an interesting pause. It's just shy of a familiar sort of pause, the way people back home used to pause when caught up in the sort of worries everyone carried around in their hearts.

It almost makes him offer the bread again.]

Maybe it... will get easier.

It should! It does.

[ She rallies a little at that. As fraught as the topic is, that is something she's had lived experience with. That's something she can say with confidence, even if the path has been rough. ]

Sometimes it doesn't seem like it. When you're living it, it's hard to tell... but it does get easier. It has for me.

Most things do.

[Really, after accepting that you're going to be killed, most things ought to be easier. Hope, thus far, had been elusive--like a switch turned off that was harder to turn back on.]

Then I hope that this will too. Learning to have hope is a pretty good way to live.

[ If she hadn't, then she knows things would be incredibly different for her now. Maybe she still would have made it here to this sleepy little land of farms, but would she have been happy? There's not so many steps from wary disbelief and the confidence she's rebuilt for herself. ]

[That's worth the briefest flicker of something like a smile. It's the closest thing he can manage to a 'thank you' just now.

Thankfully, Yukizome seems like someone who can carry a conversation.]

[ She's become something of an expert at picking up silent cues like that. Her two best friends are pretty big on the implied intent, rather than coming out and saying anything. ]

Anyway... have you tried any of the games yet? They're pretty fun! Like you'd expect from a festival like this, but fun.

The--?

[Of course they're games. Several of them say 'game' across the top. It still takes Horatio a moment blinking around to settle on what she means.]

...no. I... haven't.

Do you wanna?

[ Maybe he's the sort of shy that needs someone to encourage him to start? He seems younger than she is, in which case, it'd be kind of sad if he doesn't know how to play... ]

Most of them are pretty simple! I can explain any if you're curious.

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