ph_logs | June Event - Cukey-Scary [The Cucumber Festival]

June Event - Cukey-Scary [The Cucumber Festival]

**Plain text version here.

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?

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!

(For any concerned about the wellbeing of the fish: the person operating the wheel assures the health of these goldfish, and that the bowls are simply for festival distribution. They do note, however, that you'll be on the hook, no pun intended, to provide the new home for the fish.)

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.

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. |

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Valdis turns, giving him a little smile.

"Hey, you look like you've been enjoying yourself," she says, noting the things he's carrying. She nods toward the tent. "What do do something potentially more dangerous than running around a festival?"

Gabriel frowns curiously, peers at the sign…then looks back at her with a slow smile.

“Absolutely.” He agrees, moving to set his things down by the side of the tent—his fish, his trousers, and—ah.

He turns to face her, gesturing with the plushie before he sets it atop the folded trousers.

“Thought of you when I won this—a gift. Seemed like something you would appreciate.” He explains as he straightens, then lays a hand on the door before glancing at her.

“Ready?”

Valdis blushes ever so slightly when he mentions thinking of her when he won the plushie. It had been a very long time since anyone had given her a a gift from a game won at the fair. She's sure Max will be trying to win something for her and Ylva, she'll need to find something for him too.

"That's very sweet, thank you."

She also lays a hand on the door.

"I'm ready."

Then she pushes it open.

Gabriel pushes at the same time she does, stepping carefully across the threshold—

—and a gust of air has him reflexively reaching for Valdis’s arm to make sure she doesn’t step past him. The force of that gust reminds him far too much of the bell tower of the cathedral, of the gusts he faced on high when he was trying to protect Queen Victoria…

And as he blinks, shaking his head to clear his vision, his suspicion is, impossibly confirmed as he takes in the sheer cliff’s edge that lays before them.

Valdis halts before he touches her arm, gazing down the edge of the cliff. He's being very protective and it makes her wonder what he's experienced.

"Not that way then."

She turns to see the new doors. Each marked with a symbol that separately might mean nothing, but together...

"Tarot," she says quietly, trying to think of the safest symbol to touch.

“…yes, of course.” Gabriel replies softly as he takes a step towards the doors, but remains otherwise motionless. “The suits of the arcana—unsurprising given the decor of the tent, the impossible nature of our surroundings notwithstanding.”

He thinks swiftly, trying to remember something of Carl’s ramblings during his trips to the armory.

“Let’s see…wands represents will and creativity, swords is reason and intellect…cups is matters of spirit and heart, and pentacles are matters of the material world.” He recites, turning back towards Valdis.

“I would say we follow the sword, but so little of this speaks to reason…what do you think?”

"There are cards within each suit that can be ill omens."

Part of her feels they should go with the cups or wands and avoid the swords entirely, but it truly depended on their skills, and the unknown rules of the game.

"I think reason may not be our friend here."

“Agreed. Wholeheartedly.” Gabriel replies, turning back to the doors. That eliminates swords.

“And, frankly, I think given our overall circumstances outside this tent, matters of the material world may not serve us either, eliminating the pentacle…”

He hesitates, then moves a couple steps closer to…

“Perhaps the cups is our best option.”

"Yes. Let's do cups."

Valdis steps up and pushes on the door.

"Oh."

There's a garden before them, beautiful...so beautiful is could even rival Eden. Valdis scents the flowers, the food, the crisp air. As inviting as the food may be, she has no trust in it. Or anything here really. But she's frozen in place, holding her breath. Thinking of Eden.

Gabriel follows, prepared to dart around Valdis if need be—he does not doubt her ability to take care of herself, but he would rather be the one to suffer harm rather than see her injured—but there is no need.

It is…a garden that Victoria herself would delight in.

A similar, albeit fleeting notion occurs to him—a garden fit for Eden, this would be—but it is there and gone in an instant. It’s beautiful…but something in him finds it wanting in a manner that renders it splendid instead of divine.

The invitation is clear. Crossing to the gazebo all but crying out to be used, Gabriel reaches for a piece of fruit, picks it up…and waits.

“I can sense evil…and none lies here.” He declares, idly tossing what appears to be a ripe peach with a small smile. “Nor do I see a serpent to tempt us.”

Turning back to Valdis, he moves towards her and offers the peach, sobering a little.

“When we move forward, the way behind us closes. This seems geared towards sending us towards an end…and the garden may seem questionable, but food and drink may serve a function. Machination or hospitality—poisoning us at the start of a clear path doesn’t seem reasonable. Not this early on.”

Gabriel's tension settles around her for a brief moment, making her wonder once again what happened to make him so careful of...her.

It's enough to unfreeze her thoughts and Valdis follows to the gazebo, offering a smile as he holds out the peach.

"I suppose so."

Valdis takes the peach and passes him to the table filled with seemingly wonderful things, picking up an apple and holding it out to him. He should understand the joke as much as she understood his comment on the serpent.

"And a break wouldn't be amiss either."

The path before them isn't clear, so perhaps this may help enlighten them.

Gabriel accepts the apple with a raised eyebrow and a smile—smartass, and he finds he enjoys that about her.

Walking up to the table to join her, he takes note of the tea and pours them each a cup, pausing to sniff it before passing one to her.

“Never let it be said you don’t know how to show a friend a good time.” He quips, lifting his own cup to take a sip of his tea. The rich floral scent translates to a delightful flavor—soothing yet refreshing.

Setting his cup down, he looks around, relaxing and yet unable to fully let his guard down. Maybe it’s the job he’s done so long, or maybe…

…it’s cold. And it’s snowing.

He’d led Anna into the fortress of her ancestor. Valdis led him here…an adventure, not a quest for salvation. It’s different—far different from what happened in Transylvania.

So why can’t he let go of that sense of dread, simply standing beside another person in this manner again?

"I get the feeling we've just begun the adventure."

She accepts the tea after he checks it and it dawns on her that the protectiveness she feels from him stems from guilt of some kind. A dread that history may repeat itself. Neither of their lives had been easy, but she's been moving past the darkness in hers, become more accepting of the risk.

Losing Malachi had been the most painful moment of her life. Thinking she'd lost Max hurt, but the hope he had given her made her strong enough to carry on. Now she's sitting here, with someone whom she's met only a few times, feeling that same connection.

After a sip of tea, she takes a bite of the peach. The flavor of both are soothing and rich.

"Where should we go from here?"

The apple is crisp, fresh, sweet--as lovely as the tea. Sitting here with good company really is just...very pleasant. Idyllic, sweet as the apple itself.

It touches a chord he can't quite explain, something almost like a memory...perhaps.

He doesn't like the comparison to Eden anymore, not even in the privacy of his own mind--this little interlude, somehow, feels more powerful and pure than the perfect serenity of home.

He blinks. Home?...

Valdis speaks, and just like that the thought slips away from him like water through his fingers. Taking another bite of his apple, he considers their surroundings and notes the steps running down the other side of the gazebo and on into the rest of the garden. The sun gleams a path of pale brick, making Gabriel smile without being sure why.

"I'd say one should always blaze one's trail in life--but sometimes, it pays to follow the clearest path." he declares, glancing at Valdis and nodding towards the steps. "Shall we?"

Valdis sets down the teacup and the remains of the peach before rising. The thought to offer her hand to him passes through her mind, but she holds back. No matter how much healing has been done, there will always be that hesitation before opening up to the potential for new pain.

"Yes, let's continue the game."

She knows he will follow. Down the path and to the split between the wisteria and the roses. Her favorite flowers are the latter, which draws her in that direction, but she waits.

"Two doors this time, with more symbolism I'm sure."

Roses commonly associated with romance. Wisteria for new friendships. Yet both have ties to new love.

"Unquestionably." he agrees softly, looking between both paths that lay before them after a long, meandering walk. In more ways than one--he's intimately familiar with the language of flowers, has used it before for coded messages that, unfortunately, had nothing to do with affairs of the heart.

"And if this game deals in symbolism...perhaps, then, the roses are the right choice."

He glances at Valdis with a shrug and a questioning look, seeking her opinion.

"Both flowers represent some form of love, but conventional wisdom dictates that the truest road is rarely the the straightest or the easiest. Ergo, the maze rather than the straightaway would be the more worthwhile path, no?"

"I guess we go with the maze then."

Valdis leads him down the path with the roses, toward the door...and through it into a theater.

What awaits them is nothing like what she expected. A justice, Maraah, demanding they announce their wrongs, and before them a scale, just like when the heart is weighed against the feather.

She looks at Gabriel, knowing they both have heavy pasts, but she's not sure it's considered a lie if he can't remember his history.

Through the door, they find a judge—in every sense of the word.

Confess their injustices? Their sins? What began as a pleasant diversion on a lovely day has suddenly and horrifically shifted into the one thing Gabriel has dreaded for every one of the seven years of his life he can remember with any reasonable certainty.

Before the family Valerious, from Dracula on down to Anna. Before he was found on the steps of the Vatican. Before the Order.

You shattered the Rose Window!…I wish you a week in Hell for that.

Narrowing his eyes up at the gilded figure, Gabriel stalks forward, the remembered anger and bitterness rising up in him.

“Oh, you would be surprised by how much injustice I’ve packed into the seven years of my life I can remember, and you can pile every last one onto the left side of that scale—fitting for the Left Hand of God, wouldn’t you agree?” He spits. “The murder of Dr. Henry Jekyll! The murder of Anna Valerious, her brother Velkan! Each of them, a single death that prevented a thousand others—but that doesn’t matter, does it? I saved an innocent creature who never asked to be born or to birth the children of the Devil’s favorite son—I saved an entire family bloodline from eternity in Purgatory, and it doesn’t matter, does it? None of it matters because I’m still dead. I’m still here, answering for my crimes—I fought the Romans at Masada, who knows how many hundreds of years I have to answer for?!”

His voice has risen to a shout at this point, one that dies slowly as he finally finishes—his fury spent, his bitterness choking him so the next words are barely audible save for the listening silence of the room—and its only other occupant besides that of Maraah.

“None of it matters because the injustices I am guilty of are unspeakable. Why else would God see fit to strip me of my memory?”

His rage hurts, but more than that, she wonders if there is some sort of fear hidden behind it. No matter what she thinks of his confession, his worry over what he can't remember mirrors her own, but his side of the scales begins to tip as she remains silent. There is no time to hesitate.

"Hundreds of thousands," she begins. "Perhaps even millions of lives have been destroyed by my hands. I do not know if these actions were willing, or coerced, but it does not excuse the chaos and death I inflicted upon the world. My salvation came on the point of a blade, but even that did not stop the killing. I have lied, cheated, and manipulated my way through life, using every asset available to survive, to get whatever I wanted, not just what I needed. I am well and truly half heaven, and half hell."

The scales slow and begin to move in the other direction, hers beginning to drop lower.

Gabriel watches the scales start to shift, then glances at Valdis...

...and he can't. He's not sure what will happen if those scales tip, he doesn't really understand what's happening now, but he knows he can't. He can't let those scales fall to her side, he can't he can't he can't...

He can't fail her like he failed Anna.

"I would let them die." he confesses in a whisper. "Every life saved by every death...I would go back if I had the chance and let every one of them live, if it meant I could stop but one single death. One life for thousands. Perhaps even millions."

He turns away from her, looking to the scales.

"I would let every monster walk free if it spared one single life that deserved to be lived."

The scales stall their descent, then start to tip in the other direction. For a moment, they teeter on the precipice...

And as they balance, the world is consumed by water.

Valdis isn't afraid of the scales the way her companion is. She can feel his panic and flinches when he tries to add to his own burden. As an empath, she can tell if someone is lying, and he seems to believe his own words enough that the scales balance.

Then water, and with the water something else.

"We'll be discussing all that later," she comments, fearlessly continuing the trek toward the new door.

Even the movement of the serpent in the water near them doesn't faze her. There is not much she fears, and death has never been among what scares her.

"You'll have to take me out properly--I'm not that kind of boy!" he quips with only a little humor as he starts to wade.

Then he feels that first curl of the serpent, and his heart is in his throat.

It doesn't get better when he sees a door that has easier access. Closer, less laborious to reach in their current predicament...she'll be safe if they take the easier route.

The truest road is rarely the straightest or the easiest.

When we move forward, the way behind us closes.

Even the antidote was encased in acid, according to Carl.

Gabriel sees the easier exit--and when he's close enough to Valdis to reach out, he finds her hand and holds tight, gesturing to the second door and shaking his head.

The only way out is through--and at every step, it's been a joint operation. It's a risk, but he's not letting anyone else take a risk on his behalf.

He's ready to reach the true exit, and if it causes their death? It's an end they will share.

It's the only bad ending he could live with at this point.

As the serpent draws closer, and his hand finds her, she suddenly stops. Foolhardiness comes to mind and she begins to question his feelings and what impact they are having on hers. Yet he wants to stay the course, so they shall.

The serpent never stops them and when they open the final door, The cliff lies before them once more, there is a breath of fresh air and the idea of a wish.

"I guess we made it."

For a moment, as they emerge onto the cliffs in safety, Gabriel is taken back to another cliffside--one that stood in his mind's eye as they were deciding what to do for Anna.

I have never been to the sea...

He knew that's what he wanted for her--to give her that thing she never saw in life. Her 'brighter side of death.'

Knowing now that a wish awaits them, he feels the certainty in his chest as readily as he still feels the agony of Anna's death.

"When I came here, I killed a woman...and at the same time, she died saving my life." he explains, gazing out across the water. "She was Transylvanian, and she told me that her people always look on the bright side of death. It's there, she said, just...harder to see."

He pauses, and though sad his smile is bright as the sun as he turns to face her.

"I wish for a kitten. For you...soft and lively, one that will not--cannot leave you, even in death. Even if you return to your life, a companion that will remain so you always remember there's a brighter side to even death...so you remember that no matter your losses, you are never alone."

He extends a hand to her, still smiling, but eyes quietly pleading.

"Make this wish with me--I have taken so much life. Let me give life instead...let me bring a bit of joy instead of sorrow. Just this once."

For a man who carries such guilt, she's not completely surprised by his wish, and yet it is one she cannot accept.

"I already have a kitten, I do not need another."

Though she herself has no idea what kind of wish would benefit them both.

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June Event - Cukey-Scary [The Cucumber Festival]

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