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ph_logs2024-06-08 10:59 pm
pumpkinhollow) wrote in ph_logs2024-06-08 10:59 pm
June Event - Cukey-Scary [The Cucumber Festival]
**Plain text version here.
Almost as abundant as the attendees are, the stalls and booths set up with cucumber-centric meals are easily found. much of it is cheap, even free in many cases, and scattered with them are other booths peddling artisan goods.
The Whirling Wyvern is a ride that stands shortly behind a neat arrangement of picnic tables. Rope fences wind around the ride, giving it a safe distance from any bystanders, and the surrounding area is littered with flour bags, densely stuffed to offer padding.
Watching it even briefly makes it very clear why the padding is needed: the platform, raised about two feet off the ground in the middle, begins to spin its seated riders, rotating faster and faster until they topple, roll, and fall off the sides, into the padding below. People can often be heard nearby making bets with friends to see who can stay on the longest. (It's not a recommended ride for anyone who's been drinking!)
Bumpermobiles is another ride, operating on enchantment instead of electricity and a switch, that may look familiar to some of Pumpkin Hollow's residents from more modern times! Though they lack the distinctive roofed building in favor of a section of paved road closed off with wooden beams, the small carts of the bumpermobiles resemble automobiles of the current time, outfitted with wide-edges to brace the impact they'll inevitably have on one-another! Each one seats two, but are able to be driven on their own, if you'd prefer to focus your conversations on heckling your fellow driver.
Hot Air Balloons are set up not on the Green, but just outside of it, taking a spot just off to the side that's unoccupied by booths or frequent foot-traffic. Each ride carries a maximum of three, not counting the operator, and gives any rider an impressive view of marrow isle for thirty minutes.
The Carousel stands in the center of the Festival Green, chiming cheerful music from the pillar in the center. Horses are joined by the addition of shimmering unicorns, beaked pegasi, and colorfully painted pony-drawn carts (which are crafted to be seats, for those who cannot climb on one of the other mounts).
The Wheel of Chance is a vertical wheel, perched between artisan's booths, offering low-stake prizes for a small payment! 5 Brass allows you to spin the wheel, offering one of ten available prizes:
The Cucumber Festival's Raffle is one of the most coveted opportunities to spend a small sum of brass and win one of the many prizes donated by the community, with all contributions going into community services and upkeep.
Each ticket costs 20 Brass, and each person may purchase up to 5 tickets. There will be three drawings total, granting a small prize, a medium prize, and a grand prize to each winner. One person cannot win more than one prize; if the same person draws a second prize after their first, it will be re-rolled.
To purchase a raffle ticket, please reply to the Pumpkin Hollow mod account comment with RAFFLE TICKETS as the title, also linked here, stating how many tickets your character will be buying. On JUNE 14TH, ticket purchasing will be closed, and the prizes will be rolled!
The prizes are as follows:
The Cucumber Growing Competition is a celebration of the farmers who made all this possible, as well as a flexing of gardening prowess. Each cucumber is measured in weight, length, and color! The prize for the best cucumber in show is simply a ribbon, but among the Pumpkin Hollow farmers, it's quite a statement to have. Career farmers, hobby gardeners, and onlookers alike gather to see the town's farmers' handiwork!
The Cooking Competition follows directly after the Cucumber Growing Competition. While the larger of the vegetables don't make for very good foods, sacrificing flavor for size, the rest of the entries are cut up and used for a variety of dishes. Chefs of all varieties are encouraged to participate to show their culinary prowess!
The Great Turnip Smash-Off is a cheeky jab at the prior year's failed festival. Wielding any tools they like, including but not limited to one's hands themselves, each contestant is allotted three minutes to destroy as many turnips as they possibly can. The prize for the cucumber festival's first annual turnip slayer is a small trophy for bragging rights!
The Water Walk is a fun sport for all ages! Lined up in rows with metal spoons full of water, the participants must walk carefully to the end of the "racetrack" to a small glass of water, with a line denoted on the side at the middle. The first person to fill their glass to or above that mark wins!
The Variety Show occurs throughout the week, offering the stage to many people of assorted talents. The first day is booked up for magicians (sleight of hand, specifically - mages are politely requested to refrain from participation), and on the following Monday, a "feat of strength" competition will showcase the might of those strongest in Pumpkin Hollow! The other days are yet to be filled, and several festival attendants are waiting with clipboards to accept submissions. Many newcomers have talents they've never seen before, so new submissions of the musical, magical, or other remarkable talent alike are not only welcome, but strongly encouraged!
CUKEY-SCARY
Come one, come all!
The long-awaited festival to enjoy vegetables and welcome in the summer months has finally arrived - and this time, completely uninhibited by curses!
Pumpkin Hollow's streets are bright and bustling, adorned with green ribbons, baskets of flowers, and freshly arranged shop stalls to market their goods to the festival-goers as they mill about the streets surrounding the Festival Green. Cheering crowds watch performers perched upon stages, jaunty music played by thoroughly energized bands fills the air, and the smell of freshly-cut cucumbers is carried on the breeze.
Welcome to the Cucumber Festival, a sorely-missed holiday held exclusively on Marrow Isle. It is a festival begun at the town's inception to encourage the newly-established farming community, which was rapidly embraced from then on. Many smaller-scale gardeners dedicate vast amounts of energy in joining farmers to make the festival possible, and this year is more abundant than ever, thanks to the efforts of the new arrivals taking up the farming mantles. The merriment sprawls all over the Festival Green, and even further into the town.
One question yet remains: where to begin?
Pumpkin Hollow's streets are bright and bustling, adorned with green ribbons, baskets of flowers, and freshly arranged shop stalls to market their goods to the festival-goers as they mill about the streets surrounding the Festival Green. Cheering crowds watch performers perched upon stages, jaunty music played by thoroughly energized bands fills the air, and the smell of freshly-cut cucumbers is carried on the breeze.
Welcome to the Cucumber Festival, a sorely-missed holiday held exclusively on Marrow Isle. It is a festival begun at the town's inception to encourage the newly-established farming community, which was rapidly embraced from then on. Many smaller-scale gardeners dedicate vast amounts of energy in joining farmers to make the festival possible, and this year is more abundant than ever, thanks to the efforts of the new arrivals taking up the farming mantles. The merriment sprawls all over the Festival Green, and even further into the town.
One question yet remains: where to begin?
Cucumber Celebrations Commence!
Copious Cucumber Cuisine
With the cucumber harvest more bountiful this year than it'd ever been, the booths have a wide assortment of offerings - cucumber chips, fried pickles, bowls of salad, breads with chunks of vegetable in them, fritters, among the wide tide of other culinary delights. If you can make it with a cucumber, these people have!Almost as abundant as the attendees are, the stalls and booths set up with cucumber-centric meals are easily found. much of it is cheap, even free in many cases, and scattered with them are other booths peddling artisan goods.
Challenges of Chance and Cheer
As much as Hollowites enjoy their food, there's rarely an opportunity that they pass up to incorporate games or rides into festivities, and the Cucumber Festival has an extremely wide variety to offer!The Whirling Wyvern is a ride that stands shortly behind a neat arrangement of picnic tables. Rope fences wind around the ride, giving it a safe distance from any bystanders, and the surrounding area is littered with flour bags, densely stuffed to offer padding.
Watching it even briefly makes it very clear why the padding is needed: the platform, raised about two feet off the ground in the middle, begins to spin its seated riders, rotating faster and faster until they topple, roll, and fall off the sides, into the padding below. People can often be heard nearby making bets with friends to see who can stay on the longest. (It's not a recommended ride for anyone who's been drinking!)
Bumpermobiles is another ride, operating on enchantment instead of electricity and a switch, that may look familiar to some of Pumpkin Hollow's residents from more modern times! Though they lack the distinctive roofed building in favor of a section of paved road closed off with wooden beams, the small carts of the bumpermobiles resemble automobiles of the current time, outfitted with wide-edges to brace the impact they'll inevitably have on one-another! Each one seats two, but are able to be driven on their own, if you'd prefer to focus your conversations on heckling your fellow driver.
Hot Air Balloons are set up not on the Green, but just outside of it, taking a spot just off to the side that's unoccupied by booths or frequent foot-traffic. Each ride carries a maximum of three, not counting the operator, and gives any rider an impressive view of marrow isle for thirty minutes.
The Carousel stands in the center of the Festival Green, chiming cheerful music from the pillar in the center. Horses are joined by the addition of shimmering unicorns, beaked pegasi, and colorfully painted pony-drawn carts (which are crafted to be seats, for those who cannot climb on one of the other mounts).
The Wheel of Chance is a vertical wheel, perched between artisan's booths, offering low-stake prizes for a small payment! 5 Brass allows you to spin the wheel, offering one of ten available prizes:
- a cucumber, covered in batter and fried, on a stick.
- a goldfish in a decorative bowl.
- a pair of pants, with several varieties to choose from.
- a deck of playing cards.
- a fine leather-bound notebook.
- a set of six shot glasses.
- a bottle of wine.
- a basket of assorted fruits.
- a glass-blown animal native to Marrow Isle, palm-sized, in assorted species and colors.
- 10 Brass. Double your money!
The Cucumber Festival's Raffle is one of the most coveted opportunities to spend a small sum of brass and win one of the many prizes donated by the community, with all contributions going into community services and upkeep.
Each ticket costs 20 Brass, and each person may purchase up to 5 tickets. There will be three drawings total, granting a small prize, a medium prize, and a grand prize to each winner. One person cannot win more than one prize; if the same person draws a second prize after their first, it will be re-rolled.
To purchase a raffle ticket, please reply to the Pumpkin Hollow mod account comment with RAFFLE TICKETS as the title, also linked here, stating how many tickets your character will be buying. On JUNE 14TH, ticket purchasing will be closed, and the prizes will be rolled!
The prizes are as follows:
- 1st (small): a telescope, with elegant engravings in the metal, donated by Elias Coldwood.
- 2nd (medium): a set of two enchanted tea puppies, one glass and one metal, donated by Neil West.
- 3rd (grand prize): a basket-hilt sword, well-weighted, masterfully crafted, and delightfully ornate, donated by Dahlia Leeds.
Contestants Convene for Competition
Of course, what's a festival without a little bit of friendly competition! Over the week of celebrations, the Cucumber Festival hosts the following activities for any and all participants interested in joining in the fun.The Cucumber Growing Competition is a celebration of the farmers who made all this possible, as well as a flexing of gardening prowess. Each cucumber is measured in weight, length, and color! The prize for the best cucumber in show is simply a ribbon, but among the Pumpkin Hollow farmers, it's quite a statement to have. Career farmers, hobby gardeners, and onlookers alike gather to see the town's farmers' handiwork!
The Cooking Competition follows directly after the Cucumber Growing Competition. While the larger of the vegetables don't make for very good foods, sacrificing flavor for size, the rest of the entries are cut up and used for a variety of dishes. Chefs of all varieties are encouraged to participate to show their culinary prowess!
The Great Turnip Smash-Off is a cheeky jab at the prior year's failed festival. Wielding any tools they like, including but not limited to one's hands themselves, each contestant is allotted three minutes to destroy as many turnips as they possibly can. The prize for the cucumber festival's first annual turnip slayer is a small trophy for bragging rights!
The Water Walk is a fun sport for all ages! Lined up in rows with metal spoons full of water, the participants must walk carefully to the end of the "racetrack" to a small glass of water, with a line denoted on the side at the middle. The first person to fill their glass to or above that mark wins!
The Variety Show occurs throughout the week, offering the stage to many people of assorted talents. The first day is booked up for magicians (sleight of hand, specifically - mages are politely requested to refrain from participation), and on the following Monday, a "feat of strength" competition will showcase the might of those strongest in Pumpkin Hollow! The other days are yet to be filled, and several festival attendants are waiting with clipboards to accept submissions. Many newcomers have talents they've never seen before, so new submissions of the musical, magical, or other remarkable talent alike are not only welcome, but strongly encouraged!
Carnival Complications
Of course, not all things can go entirely peacefully in Pumpkin Hollow's festivities, and the Cucumber Festival has never been exempt from this. Though the prior years' incident was far more disruptive to the festival's celebrations, several things begin to crop up over the span of the week.
The Whack-a-Mole Game, during the first night, becomes the first item to start experiencing a mild haunting. Though the specters only make themselves known when the participant is alone, there's a distinct feeling of guilt that comes with each smack, not unlike stepping on a cat's tail without realizing it. Instead of the triumphant jingle that the machine lets out when the game is complete, a stark silence settles in, as though the entire festival has frozen in time. Only then does a whisper, no louder than a breeze, brush past your ear.
Rolling a D3, the spirits haunting the whack-a-mole machine will tell you the following:
(Mod Note: the information given is always going to be about someone nearby. When tagging into someone's top-level with the Whack-a-Mole Game who's got secrets or gossip, provide a piece of information about your character that the spirits might've said! Additionally, feel free to request a piece of information about an NPC, major or minor. For a lie, anything goes. Have fun with it!)
The Candle-Shooting Game is the next to become haunted, though the haunting is significantly more straightforward. In an act of simple mischief, the flame will occasionally withstand blasts from the water gun that should have surely snuffed it, or the flame will go out just as you line your shot up. These spirits are aiming to ruin this particular game, but not your night.
There is a sign on the double doors that make up the entrance, which reads, "Admission is free, but you must enter in pairs." And true to its word, the doors will not open unless two different people take each door's handle. Otherwise it is definitively locked.
So, choose a companion and go explore! What's the worst that could happen? All you have to do is open the door.
Capricious Crashers
As the festival goes on, it seems that some poltergeists have seen fit to invite themselves to the party. Two games are affected, with varying results.The Whack-a-Mole Game, during the first night, becomes the first item to start experiencing a mild haunting. Though the specters only make themselves known when the participant is alone, there's a distinct feeling of guilt that comes with each smack, not unlike stepping on a cat's tail without realizing it. Instead of the triumphant jingle that the machine lets out when the game is complete, a stark silence settles in, as though the entire festival has frozen in time. Only then does a whisper, no louder than a breeze, brush past your ear.
Rolling a D3, the spirits haunting the whack-a-mole machine will tell you the following:
- a secret that isn't yours to have about someone in town.
- a piece of gossip, a shocking recent happening that may or may not be getting around in whispers.
- a lie, carefully crafted to impact the way you see one of your fellow townsfolk.
(Mod Note: the information given is always going to be about someone nearby. When tagging into someone's top-level with the Whack-a-Mole Game who's got secrets or gossip, provide a piece of information about your character that the spirits might've said! Additionally, feel free to request a piece of information about an NPC, major or minor. For a lie, anything goes. Have fun with it!)
The Candle-Shooting Game is the next to become haunted, though the haunting is significantly more straightforward. In an act of simple mischief, the flame will occasionally withstand blasts from the water gun that should have surely snuffed it, or the flame will go out just as you line your shot up. These spirits are aiming to ruin this particular game, but not your night.
Cards and Consequences
On the outskirts of the festival, there is a strange building set up. Just a small shack, decorated with celestial trappings and a mysterious air. Above the door, a sign painted black with gold lettering says "HOUSE OF CARDS". Is it a funhouse? A fortune teller? No one's sure who set it up. Perhaps another effort of Captain Tuttle or something.There is a sign on the double doors that make up the entrance, which reads, "Admission is free, but you must enter in pairs." And true to its word, the doors will not open unless two different people take each door's handle. Otherwise it is definitively locked.
So, choose a companion and go explore! What's the worst that could happen? All you have to do is open the door.
| CONTENT WARNINGS: mild manipulation, unreality, snakes, possible character death. |
no subject
He notices Claude fidgeting, because of course he does, but he helps himself to a cute little pastry with a frosting rose on top instead of immediately pointing it out. Please wait. He's compelled to relish the things here that remind him of home, up to and including this probably-illusory garden. Much as he isn't keen on this mysterious "house," if he were to rush through this garden too hastily, he'd surely regret it. So, please wait.
After a few more minutes he finally says, "Claude," with a pointedly raised eyebrow, and then, "If you are so opposed to appreciating the moment, perhaps you ought to go and scout ahead." Let him finish his tea in peace.
no subject
No, this is a good compromise-- Lorenz can have some more time, Claude can feel like some progress is being made, and they won't be near enough to each other to drive each other crazy with their opposite impulses for a few minutes. "Excellent idea, Lorenz. You keep on enjoying your moment, I'll be back."
The garden continues to be very lovely as Claude walks the meandering path, and the antsy feeling that had been building up is soothed again just from the motion. The walk to where the path branches is fairly long-- but if Lorenz still isn't done by the time he gets back to him, he could always try and look for some useful plants around.
His usual suave, unbothered demeanor is back when he returns to the gazebo. He's totally chill and definitely not still burning with curiosity, nope! "Nothing too strange-- just a lovely walk through the garden, and two paths at the end, leading to two separate doors. One path goes through a hedge maze of rose bushes and the other goes underneath some trellises with wisteria vines."
no subject
Still, this place isn't home. Even outside of this specific place (building? enh), the quaint town is not home, and if Lorenz lets his mind wander too far from the tea and cakes, he's going to think about it, and he's going to churn up his own anxieties about--everything. How to live here. The truth of his fate at home. He's never enjoyed uncertainty, so while he sips his second cup of tea he tries very hard not to think about the things he cannot control.
Goddess, but it is difficult, how does anyone in their situation have the time to sit and relax about anything, if--
Oh, Claude is back. Lorenz blinks at him, definitely pulled out of his wistful gazing at flowers and not anything else. Hmm?
"Oh," hold on, he's just about done with this cup--there, setting it down and standing from the table, "Then I do hope you've come prepared for more walking, as we will be venturing into the maze shortly."
Busybody panic who, there are roses to go and see, come, come-!!
no subject
He quickly catches up to Lorenz's lead down the path he'd just come back from-- those long legs can get him moving fast when he wants, huh?
The view on the way there is nothing to sneeze at either-- or, well, it's a lot to sneeze at if you have a pollen sensitivity. But it's very pretty. "I wonder if there'll be a way to get back here after the cucumber festival is over..."
no subject
Point being: he's off to the rose races, and he's completely unabashed about his immediately-much-improved mood vis-a-vis this mystery shack. How miserable life would be without pretty flowers.
"Here as in this particular garden, I hope you mean. I have no intentions of wandering around any additional cliffs." Shudder. "Were the complications removed, I would not mind spending more time here."
When they come upon the entrance to the hedge maze, Lorenz doesn't miss a beat, striding confidently down the first path without hesitation. "Follow my lead." Obviously, his passion for roses will be their most helpful guide.
Maybe. Give him a chance. Give him, like, six turns, before the pep in his step starts to morph into Lorenz Annoyance (tm).
no subject
To the unsurprise of Claude, Lorenz's passion for roses does not in fact render him special maze knowledge; he's keeping track of the turns they've taken in his head, and he'll speak up if Lorenz is about to take them down a dead end path they've already tried, but he'll let Lorenz have this one.
no subject
...And one of them must also get pettily angry at some hedges, but he's pretending that's not him. If he scoffs at Claude's first gentle tip that a certain path is a dead end, and walks down it anyway, only to return a moment later and go the other way—don't say anything. He's getting through it.
He even manages, eventually, to get through it properly, although his enthusiasm for the roses is... not dampened at all by the end, ha ha, take that, tedious maze-!! After a brief pause to pluck a rose from the nearest hedge and stick it into his shirt's chest pocket, Lorenz steps forward to open the next door. The immediate change in mood from the garden to this room is almost shocking, and he listens to the woman give her instructions with a furrowed brow. Hmm.
Injustices, is it. Well. He crosses his arms, considering the woman, the scales, the... courtroom, he supposes. Hmm.
"Alright." Fine, if the options are speak or stand here indefinitely, "Which of us shall go first?"
no subject
Claude waits for him to fuss with sticking the plucked rose in his shirt pocket, then steps with him through the door to the next room. It's-- much smaller than the last, and his eyes widen a little in surprise when what he thought was a statue turns out to be a person. Maybe? Maybe a magical construct? Who knows.
"Our injustices to one another or... in general?" There is no reply. Claude considers it all carefully; he's pretty averse to going first in something like this, but as a show of good will... "There are things about me that I've kept secret from you that I probably should have told you by now."
The scale is still for a moment, as though waiting for there to be more. When it's clear there will not be, the scale on the right tilts downward.
no subject
Lorenz waits for him to consider with a mumbled, 'Oh, to each other?' - let him cross "killing people even though it was war time" and "inconsiderate to women" off his mental list, then. That focus does make this... hopefully faster, he thinks.
In any case, Claude's frustratingly-vague-as-always admission makes Lorenz run through curious to indignant to resigned and back to curious again in the span of a few seconds. He'd once told Marianne not to force herself to share anything that would hurt before she was ready, and that is a concept he still holds true to, so maybe it's Claude himself actively framing keeping secrets as an "injustice" that rankles? Hmph.
Well, he'll think about that later. The scale tilts, and Lorenz says, "Thank the Goddess our judgment here seems not to rest upon details."
But he's totally fine with it!! He clears his throat and stands a bit straighter, not actually looking directly at Claude when he admits, "I was... unfair to you at the Academy, and for quite a while afterwards. My father gave me instructions, and I failed to see beyond his shortsightedness when it came to you."
These things, of course, Claude knows; Lorenz has never been secretive about his father's directives to keep a suspicious eye on Claude. That part isn't the injustice, no, that would be, "I owe you an apology. You have tolerated my past behavior without complaint, but to continue without clearing the air would be selfish of me, at best. So." Drum roll please, miss elf-- "I am sorry."
There. He looks down at the scale, waiting... waiting... until the left side tilts downward, in turn.
no subject
Lorenz's apology is-- actually very nice, as is the acknowledgement of his own patience. A compliment from Lorenz is rare indeed, at least when it comes to him. "You've long been forgiven, Lorenz. But I appreciate it nonetheless."
They look back at the scale together-- and it's unclear how exactly this is being judged, whether Claude's vagueness is receiving some sort of penalty or the acceptance of the apology has lightened Lorenz's end, or what-- but though the left side lowers a bit, the right remains heavier.
A door appears, and there is nothing more to do but go through it.
They enter a small temple-- it wouldn't look too out of place back in Fodlan, actually, though the statue at the altar isn't any of the saints. Claude silently reads the plaque, then turns and spots the other door. Nothing to stop them from just going through it, but... "I don't know about you... but I like the sound of a better future."
no subject
He'll still put a pin in whatever it is Claude isn't telling him, now that he knows for certain that something exists. A person is allowed to keep secrets; they are allies, perhaps even friends, there is an implied level of trust between them both on the battlefield and off - but Lorenz hardly expects every ally to bare their entire soul. The rub therein is the fact that this thing weighs on Claude enough for him to bring it up, as Lorenz knows him well enough to predict that if it were unimportant, Claude would let it go.
So. Some other time. He's busy giving himself another mental pat on the back for his good grade in giving genuine apologies when Claude has to go and tell him he's forgiven, like, out loud? Where the lady can hear? Goddess, read the room. Or: Lorenz makes a face, balking in surprise for just a second, then he makes another face, then simply nods.
Scale, judgment, door, temple—Lorenz scoffs without malice, skimming over the inscription himself. "I have been pursuing that very thing for many years, if you'll recall." You know, like Claude wasn't privy to an obscene number of Lorenz Rants about the Alliance.
He tugs the rose from the garden room out of his shirt pocket, careful not to tear the fabric with the thorns. Then he looks at Claude, not yet putting the flower down, "Together?"
no subject
"Then we're of one mind for once." Claude chuckles, pulling out the dates he'd sneaked into his pocket. And he was so looking forward to having them later too... it was nice to get a taste of home. Lorenz might catch his rueful look at the fruits before he meets his eye. "Together." He nods, and they drop their offerings onto the altar.
The gate swings open, beckoning them through, and Claude leads the way through the door beyond. Once through it, he's immediately disoriented-- there doesn't seem to be anything that strange about the "room" at first, not compared to any of the others at least. The street looks like any in town on a full moon night, though bustling far busier than Claude has ever seen it. Feeling far more dizzy than the situation should rightly call for, Claude reaches a hand out and snags Lorenz's arm.
no subject
For just a moment Lorenz is sure they've made it back outside, and he's almost underwhelmed by the suddenness of it. "Were we indisposed for that long?" he manages to murmur, before the full oddness of the scene before them hits him like vertigo. He feels like he's tilting until Claude grabs his arm and he realizes he hasn't actually moved at all.
"Oh, that's dreadful," he says, for the sake of putting words in the air to distract from the sights. He grips Claude's wrist with his other hand, struck by the- honestly ridiculous, but they are where they are- thought that one of them might be literally swept away by the strangely-moving crowd. "Perhaps shutting our eyes would help?"
But not silly, like that sounds.
no subject
He takes a steadying breath, opens his eyes, and focuses on one of the doors he can just barely see through the crowd. The blurred motions start to slow. "I think I got it... you ready to move?"
no subject
He shuts his eyes in turn and stands there as still as he can, posture rail-straight as if that's going to help, humming low and a little uncertain when Claude asks to move. Is he ready? Is he going to, instead, open his eyes and immediately pitch forward into the crowd? It could happen.
He opens one eye to test, then the other - a little unsettling to look again, but he remains on his feet. Terrible. He doesn't let go of Claude, just in case. "Ready as I will ever be, given the circumstances. Have you figured out where to go?"
no subject
The crowd doesn't part for them but there is, somehow, always space for them to make one more step forward. Having so many people-- or something that looks like people-- move in such erratic ways around him has his teeth on edge, but at least Lorenz has his back, so no one can stab him in it.