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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. |
cw: mass death, planetary genocide, ecological destruction
Once upon a time, CT wouldn't do this. She never used to be quite so biting, quite so ready to lash out at the nearest target or even the universe itself. But CT isn't Connie, and times change, and this wasn't meant to come out like this.
What starts off as a simmering, controlled righteous frustration burns hotter and more emotional the more she speaks. "It is the complete destruction of a world in the worst possible ways you can imagine. The Covenant positions its ships above the planet's population centres and bombards them with superheated plasma—sometimes bombs, sometimes beams, always so powerful that anything organic caught in its blast radius would be vaporized before they even knew what was happening. Even outside of the initial target area, the heat spreads for miles and you better hope you're close enough to die instantly. Soil becomes molten and mineralises. Bodies of water are boiled away until all that's left are ashy— puddles, if there's anything left at all. Buildings and vehicles and infrastructure all melt down into this horrid chemical soup that mixes with the ash and hardens into this horrid glass or obsidian-like substance that nothing can survive in. And even if you somehow survive that, if you're far enough away from the worst of it to earn a few more days of struggling, the ash kicks up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun. The planet becomes completely uninhabitable. Nuclear winter, massive storms— if you don't escape your colony before the glassing begins in earnest you become a statistic whether you die in the blast or not."
She breathes hard. Not everyone knows all the gory details, the UNSC does what they can to keep that out of the propaganda cycle to help with morale, but there are files. Files full of official reports and eyewitness reports and all of it just a few clicks away for someone with her skills. She only started to regret wanting to know after she heard about Resol.
Her cadence gets calmer, more controlled, but no less strained. "Half the time you the news doesn't reach the rest of Human-Occupied space for months. Communication lines go down during an attack and until some survivors make it to another colony or someone notices the silence? Nothing. No one knows. I still don't know the exact date it happened."
cw: mass death, planetary genocide, ecological destruction
"I know it doesn't mean jack shit when I didn't have the right to know any of this to begin with, but I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. No one is going to hear it from me, I swear to you."
no subject
She can't bring herself to meet his eyes for long—too high a risk she'll get the wrong kind of emotional. Anger is okay. Crying and risking a meltdown isn't. So she breathes and crosses her arms under her chest. "...thank you. It's the least you could do but I do appreciate it."
This wasn't a consequence of all this magic stuff that she was expecting, but the risk is now neatly filed alongside the others she has to account for.
"Intergalactic war is a horrible thing. Humanity wasn't prepared for first contact to be... what it was."
no subject
"That seems like a common theme for Earth. You're uh... lookin' at the guy who made first contact in my world."
no subject
Her brows raise in genuine surprise. "Really? What did that look like, in your world? You say you weren't prepared but there's a lot of ways for things to go differently than all the theories."
It's like flipping a switch, one second there's the stress and the next she's redirecting that energy into simply asking questions.
no subject
"I'm an astronaut. I was in the middle of conducting an experiment in space when I got sucked-up by a wormhole. It spat me out clear across space into a place full of aliens who'd never even heard of Earth or humans. It wasn't the warmest of welcomes."
no subject
"Oh. Damn." Well, that's definitely one way to find yourself completely unprepared. It's also about as close to CT's worst nightmare of a scenario as she can currently image—the sheer unpredictability... she restrains a shudder, but it's a close thing. "—you survived going through a wormhole like that? Were you in a craft?"
no subject
"It was a module I designed myself. I had a theory that I could use the gravitational forces of Earth's atmosphere to accelerate. I calculated that if I exited the atmosphere at the right angle, I would slingshot myself away at great speed without using any accelerants or fuel." It was supposed to revolutionize their capabilities of deep space travel. It sure did, but not as intended.
"The shielding I built into my Farscape-One protected me from the radiation and heat. Probably why I didn't liquify."
no subject
"That's— as impressive as it is insanely dangerous. We still don't have small crafts capable of surviving that sort of travel and we've had access to slipspace for a couple centuries. The Covenant did, but... the Covenant were always much more advanced."
It's most of why the war was always so one-sided. The Covenant had them outgunned in every possible way.
"Lucky that it worked at all, even if the outcome wasn't ideal."
no subject
And on the flip side, he understands what she's saying too. The Covenant sounds a lot like the Scarrans from what he's hearing. He still wakes up in a cold sweat some nights dreaming that they finally found Earth. The things they would do there... not glassing, but not a lot better.
"My luck tends to come with downsides. I was one of the first on that side of the cosmos to do it, too. When word got out, it painted a target on my back. Not that I'm not grateful to have survived, but I spent the rest of my time in space trying to outrun every asshole and his brother who wanted a piece of me."
no subject
"I read up on slipspace travel when I accepted my first starship deployment. I'd never left my home colony before and I wanted to be prepared." To put her mind at ease about all the risks, even as controlled for as they are these days.
It doesn't sound like it's quite the same thing as what Crichton dealt with, but it's close enough. And slipspace openings have been colloquially referred to as wormholes for as long as slipspace has been open to them.
"Life on the run. I know a little something about that." Ugh, no, that was sloppy, offering too much for no reason. How this conversation started really has set her askew. "I mean— that kind of target isn't fun to deal with, I'm sure."
no subject
no subject
CT presses her lips together and exhales through her nose, arms folding a little tighter. There's a too long stretch where she says nothing at all, before she finally speaks again.
"...something else. I angered some very powerful people who needed me dead silent if they were going to keep that power."
no subject
"I won't ask for the dirty details, but is it safe to assume these people in power had no right holding onto that power? Since they were so willing to take you out, I'm assuming their morals are less than gold standard."
no subject
"Yeah," she says on a sigh. The hand rested on the opposite bicep starts picking at her uniform. "Which isn't exactly unusual, these days. I'm not sure there's a single branch of the military that isn't doing something wildly unethical for the sake of winning this war. But there's... limits. Things even the worst ONI spooks would disapprove of for the risks they invite toward our survival."
That's the tricky thing, about intergalactic war with a power against whom you stand no chance. Moral lines blur by necessity.
no subject
"You're right. There has to be a line that doesn't get crossed. Someone's gotta hold it." Why does it always come down to people like them?
"Did they get you? Is that why you're here?"
no subject
She knows the look. The feeling. Even when she did take action, she spent more nights than she can count dwelling on the knowledge that she wouldn't be doing what she was if it had just been a few deaths. A few unethical social experiments. If she had believed Project Freelancer would win them the war before it doomed them all, she would've turned a blind eye until it was all over. She knows that. And she hates it.
Another stretch of silence, before CT draws air between her teeth and nods. "They caught up with me. I think—" her jaw works a little, "—I knew it was coming eventually. They were never going to give up."
And Needles was dragging his feet about getting them into real, solid protection.
[cw: death/torture mention]
"Listen, I know this was a rocky way to start off, but I'd like you to know you've got a friend in me. You ever need someone to talk with, not about this stuff but anything, call me up. I need more friends I can talk shop with."
cw: death description
Her hand has drifted to the centre of her chest, settled over a scar currently hidden beneath her uniform. It didn't take that long, really. The fight felt like it took no time at all and yet all the time in the world. But the wounds were bad enough she bled out quickly. Too quickly to help.
It's clear enough that she's not entirely sure how to handle the offered friendship. It's... been a while, and trusting people is still like pulling teeth, but she knows she needs allies. One way or another. So she exhales, again, and nods.
"...sure. Thank you." Then, a little more relaxed as an eyebrow quirks, "Did I ever even get your name?"
no subject
"Oh, jeez. Sorry, guess I was too busy hoping you wouldn't knock my teeth out." He offers her his hand. "Commander John Crichton, originally from Earth."
no subject
The hand that takes his to shake is marred by a much more mundanely earned scar—it's from a knife blade, back when she was first practising knife tricks.
"Generally speaking I ask questions before I start throwing punches." For better or worse, sometimes. If she'd gotten the jump on Texas instead of keeping her and Carolina talking... well, she probably still would have died, actually. "Nice to meet you, Commander John Crichton. As you heard, CT is what I go by these days."
no subject
"I'm very happy to meet you, CT. Call me Crichton. I'm new here so I'm still in the Oak and Iron for now. Look me up. We can shoot the shit together."
no subject
"I'm out in the residential area of Northwest Hollow. One of the places they give the Enforcers." Not offering up her actual address immediately, she's still full of too many trust issues for that, but still. "I usually come by the O&I for drinks once I'm off shift, though."
Which she is technically still on, but she's pretty sure she's not going to get in trouble unless something major happened back at the festival whilst she's been gone. And she hasn't heard any screams, so...
good to wrap on yours?
"I can join you for drinks but only if you don't tease me about having non-alcoholic ones. Got a bit of a history I'm not looking to re-live if you get me? But, yeah, sounds like a good time."
yes!
"We could. If you decide to go for it, Cerrit's a good bird to talk to about getting the lay of things."
She doesn't know if he's met Cerrit already, but just in case he hasn't, she's deliberately not clarifying in which way she's using 'bird' here. Either he knows or he'll find out.
With a waving it off gesture, "No teasing, promise. We've all got our lines we don't cross."
I lied, but okay end for real~
and One More