December Event - To All a Good Night

[pumpkinhollow]

To All a Good Night

Givingstide

Winter is hard for everyone, but none more so than the residents of an island that has been isolated by the cruel hands of fate. Where the rest of the Emerald Isles is able to rely on imports from other nations in warmer places, Marrow Isle has no resources but her own. All the while, her mettle continues to be tested against the horrors brought on by the curse.

It is for this reason that among all the holidays celebrated by the Mothers' children, Givingstide is particularly beloved. A warm and cozy festival based around wishing each other prosperity and love in the new year, the lengthening of days, embracing generosity even in the lean times, and celebrating the fact that the darkest part of the year is coming to an end.

The fireplace is lit at the Oak & Iron. A wreath of pine boughs hangs over the merry blaze, paper horses and snowflakes decorate the walls, and a table in the center of the room has been done up to look like a silver sleigh. As people file in, hot food and warm drinks begin coming out of the kitchen and bar, and gifts begin piling up on the sleigh table. (Ultimately, a fair amount of them end up on the floor around it.) Everyone greets each other warmly with hearty handshakes, firm hugs, and wishes of a blessed Givingstide. Perhaps if you have a clever eye, you may even see a horned figure drinking hot cocoa in the corner harmlessly, enjoying the atmosphere of good will and keeping watch over the party to prevent any troublemakers. And for once, just once, for the first time in so long on this frightful, forsaken island, there is true peace.

[ Enter the Tavern. ]

The tavern is warm. Orange firelight flickers, as if dancing with the shadows. Decorations of shimmering silver and hunter green, the colors of Givingstide, adorn the dark wood decor of the Oak & Iron. The stucco and timber walls of the dining hall safeguard those within from the bitter wind and snow. It's no Leeds gala--- the food is simple, but it is beautifully made. Roasted chicken, potatoes, onion soup, and fresh-baked bread. Slices of pumpkin pie are passed around for dessert. Hot cider with or without alcohol, mulled wine, coffee, and spiced tea are served with the meal. It isn't glamorous, but it's made with love and tastes like coming home somehow.

As dinner carries on, music begins to be played from the tavern stage, and Mayor Poe has Yorick assist her in doling out the gifts from the table. They read the tags and summon the recipients to the table to recieve them. You can open yours right there or at your table, and decide for yourself whether you care to announce the name of the giver to the room.

Once the gifts are distributed, the partygoers are left to their own devices, allowed time to laugh with friends, dance to music, drink to their hearts' content, sneak off to while away a private moment in one of the inn's sitting rooms, or head home for an early night. Regardless of your choice, let it be with a loved one. A friend, a partner, a member of your newfound family. Blessed Givingstide, and may your lantern ever stay lit.

gifts and vouchers

Some important information regarding gift-giving and vouchers can be found below.

[ Review. ]

Gifts can be purchased using your own Brass, or via the holiday bazaar vouchers found in our December TDM. If you haven't taken the trivia quiz on the TDM, you still can! You can take it for each character or just once and give all your characters the same voucher.

For simplicity's sake for both our mods and our players, we will allow you to decide for yourselves the prices of your items so long as they are reasonable. You can use other purchase requests in the bank as a reference or simply decide on a price you believe is fair based on your experience. You do not have to list prices. We will trust you to make fair decisions! If you're still unsure how much an item ought to cost, feel free to ask us in the question thread on this post, but in the spirit of the holiday season (both real and fictional) we would rather allow your characters to get gifts for all their loved ones than worry too much about financials. Perhaps your character is simply a very good bargain hunter!

As a slight aside, we would love to thank each and every one of you for being a part of making Pumpkin Hollow amazing this year. We truly could not ask for a better group of players and are extremely grateful to have met all of you delightful, creative, talented, funny, incredible people. We hope you had a great holiday season, whatever that looks like for you, and we're so honored to greet the new year with this fantastic community!

Hand in hand, we put the darkness to our backs and step into the light. Rejoice, spring cometh.

Comments

[lordoftheozarks]

"I did suspect it to be a sore spot for you when I asked. It's true what I said, you are not the first I've picked up and carried. I make a habit of it if truth be told. My strength far outweighs the way I appear physically; I could pick up a horse with ease." He does enjoy surprising people with that. Who'd see it coming from a slender and delicate-looking man like him?

"Is that baby doll voice something you cultivated for convenience?" If he were in her place, he wouldn't above using it to his advantage.
 

[i_didnt_mean_to]

"No, not quite. I was most successful as the star of a show called 'Love That Baby', and my character's name was Baby Doll. I was almost a teenager, but they wanted me to sound like a small child, so...

"I would talks like this," a higher, lighter voice, verging on nasal but not quite there, "and costuming would dress me in cutesy ruffles, and all the rest, well..."

Mary shrugs, and drops into her natural voice, "People see what they want to see."

[lordoftheozarks]

"You speak of that time as if your skill in acting was of no consequence to the role," he observes. "Is that how you feel?"

[i_didnt_mean_to]

"People see what they want to see," Mary repeats, melancholy. "It was just a sitcom, just fluff and entertainment, and so on. It was popular, so it can't be art, and if any of us insisted on being seen as artists we'd be called pretentious. Myself especially. I was almost twenty-four when the show ended, and I..."

She looks down, hands curling into fists as she remembers that time. She'd been so full of hope, freed from the studio and its control, and that hope had been relentlessly crushed.

"I overreached, honestly. I was part of a stage production of Macbeth, and I won the role of Lady Macbeth. The cast and crew were supportive... I wanted to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress... and the audience laughed instead. I was ridiculous in the role, according to critics. To everyone. All they ever saw was Baby Doll."

i absolutely love where their CR has gone <3

[lordoftheozarks]

He sighs in a world-weary way. Ah, that old argument. He's heard it come around in about every decade he's ever lived through. 'Art must be something high up on a pedestal. Art is not for the common folk. Not just anyone can make it or understand it.' Culture and counterculture spin around each other like foes in a boxing ring taking shots at each other forever and always.

"You won that role fairly in an audition. I hardly think that means you were unworthy of it. But I also know that people can be cruel, and I have no doubt they were cruel to you for daring to be more than the pittance of an identity they assigned to you." He speaks with the passion of a person who has experience in shoving back hard against what the world would make of him if it could.

"Perhaps it's still true that I am only seeing what I wish to see. But I see someone intelligent sitting before me. No empty-headed doll. Though I mistook you for a child at first glance, it became abundantly clear you were and are a woman the moment you spoke. I couldn't mistake you for anything else, now. Ms. Dahl, If you had the desire to try again, here, you would have the weight of my support behind you."

[i_didnt_mean_to]

{I'm fond of it, too!}

"You're very kind, Lord Osborne. Everyone has been very kind to me since I got here." Mary fiddles a bit with her necklace chain. "I must admit, there's a part of me that's waiting for the other shoe to drop. For someone to hurt me, thoughtlessly or otherwise. It isn't fair to these new people... but it's what I know."

[lordoftheozarks]

"It's only natural to feel that way. I confess it's much the same for me some days. When I first arrived on the island, I was not so quick to tell people what I am for fear of their reaction. But I have been in this town for close to half a year and the people here are, as they are everywhere, simply people. For better or for worse."