[OPEN, Mingle] Yamsgiving

[lasthumanvoice]

Who: Cecil and EVERYONE
What: Another Harvest Celebration
When: Beginning of Pumpkinfest
Where: Center of town
Warning(s): Discussion of the Gala and its attendant CWs may come up

1. Yes, we're happy as fish [Food Prep, Oak and Iron kitchen]
Cecil's made a point of seeking out the best known chefs in town to help him put everything together for this meal. While sweet potato dishes are the star, at least one available with every course, he's hoping to hit a broad variety so everyone can find something they like. He, of course, is peeling and chopping his eternal sweet potato to make sure there's enough to go around.

(Of course you don't need to worry about him with a knife! He's fine! Don't you know he was once a boy scout?)

If someone needs an extra hand for their dishes, though, he's happy to lend one. There's an attitude of camaraderie and cheer in the room, with Cecil even breaking out singing at one or two points in the evening.


2. And gorgeous as geese [The Meal; Festival Green]
Everyone's invited to the feast. That is, in fact, the whole point. Cecil's always been pointedly neutral in the town's tensions, working as the most unbiased media monkey he can. He's the Voice of Pumpkin Hollow, and that means not taking sides between Dahlia and Neil and the Temple and whoever else. But after the gala, he's made a choice to act, to try to foster goodwill and warm feelings. This isn't the stone stew he offered during January's famine, this is a Redwall-style feast.

So, between glasses of mead from Kasprak Farm and dandelion wine, everyone is invited to fill their plate with candied yams and zucchini bread, roast chicken and venison donated by one of the Enforcers. There's a homemade cranberry sauce with citrus wedges and dandelion-leaf salad with an apple cider vinaigrette and toasted acorns for garnish. There's pasta with a homemade pesto sauce and cheese. Desserts, too, are plentiful, some even flavored with...chocolate. But many are not, and feature sweet potatoes. Muffins, pies, etc.

Find a table with a friend or a stranger, and indulge. This is a warm-fuzzy type thing--feel free to use it as a mingle.


3. And wonderfully clean in the morning [Cleanup; Also Festival Green]
Cecil is, quite honestly, expecting to be the only person to stay and clean up. He's been up since about five in the morning and he's dragging a bit at this point. Oh, he did take the time to eat, so he's not starving, but like. He could use help putting the Green back to rights.


4. We've got everything, we're growing everything [Cecil Wildcards]
[You know how to find me to plot.]

Comments

Rey | Star Wars AU

[makesrocksfloat]

2. The assortment of food is equally awe inspiriting and intimidating. She's so used to portions (and the occasional charred fish on Ahch-To) that she doesn't know what most things even are, let alone where to start. Also being new, she doesn't want to ask questions because she doesn't want everyone to know how ignorant she is about, well.

Everything.

Even the meats are vaguely registered as meat. She's never had it before, at least not as far as she remembers, but figures it's as good a place as any to start. It all smells mouth-watering and again, she doesn't want people to think she's stupid. ("You need a teacher! I can show you the ways of the Force!") At least knives were easy enough to figure out.

She saws out pieces of what looks like it might be a bird and a large chunk of the other meat and is tempted to simply cut and spear bits of it and eat that way, most of her life she'd eaten with her hands, but spots something with tines and decides to give that a try. It turns out to be great for keeping the meat in place. while she saws off what should be understandably sized pieces.

The unidentifiable meat practically melts in her mouth and is flavorful and savory. Her curiosity overcomes her self-consciousness, so she turns to the person on her right and says, "What is this? I've never had it before."

3. Rey's stomach is full beyond anything she thought possible and she wants to take a nap, but she also doesn't want to be rude and go without thanking anyone or helping them set things to rights.

She also wonders if she can have bits of what's leftover, but she'll ask about that later. Preferably after the initial 'hello, how are you. everything was tasty' conversation. They might be more likely to let her have some.

Besides, this is a potentially good way to practice. Rey concentrates and lets one plate stack on top of another which goes on yet another then further. When she thinks she's gotten enough, to her limit, she levitates them all in one big stack.

She's paying so much attention to 'carrying' the plates to notice when someone notices her.

3

[spaghettification]

There's a man who's starting to leave, when he notices the floating thing going on. Siebren is floating, himself, bare feet (yes, even in the October weather) about six inches off the ground. Of course, he's not using the Force; he's fucking directly with gravity.

"I don't think I've seen you around before."

[makesrocksfloat]

Rey has enough self control to not yelp when she sees him floating, an easily startled scavenger didn't last long, but not quite enough in the Force for the plates to not rattle drastically before she regains her grip on them. She smiles sheepishly at the man, saying "Yeah. I'm new. Really new. Do you, uh. D'you know if this kind of thing happens a lot?"

Food. Occasions with so much food. While she felt like she'd be full for quite some time, she needed to know if she'd have to worry about it in the future.

[spaghettification]

"Regularly enough. Festivals, parties. You just missed the birthday gala, but that one ended in a bit of disaster. But I've heard there's a bonfire coming up, and next month there's the Dance of Celestine."

He doesn't realize yet that Rey's focusing primarily on the food. For all the struggles he's had, Siebren hasn't had to scavenge for his supper.

[makesrocksfloat]

Rey tried to not seem too...scavenger-y when she replied, but she wasn't sure if she kept the wonder out of her voice. "A bonfire? Burning things for fun?" But then she felt herself blush. "I've never been to a dance before. What do you wear? I mean, other than a dress." Which she'd also never worn before. She couldn't help but hear Kylo's disdainful words in her head. 'You. A scavenger.' Yes, she was a scavenger, but she thought he'd learned to see past that.

And the scraps were both plentiful and fascinating. She regretted not having a pouch with her so that she could covertly snitch what was left.

2

[lasthumanvoice]

"That is goat meat. Some of the farms northwest of town keep them, primarily for milk. But the male ones make good eating!"

Cecil's the host of this little shebang, and he noticed that Rey's new, but didn't want to overwhelm her too much right away. Not when it was clear the meal was an epiphany and a half for her.

"There's some fried fish up on the buffet as well--the crispy brown things on that side. I think you'll enjoy them too. Want me to grab a couple?"

[makesrocksfloat]

"Goat? What's a goat," she asked, then hastened to add "Some kind of animal, yeah, but I'm pretty sure I've never heard of them before."

Which made sense. Being from Jakku meant she didn't hear about or know about a lot of things. Even her experiences at Ahch-To were more about her trying to get Luke to pay attention to her, her dealing with the nuns' attention (and clear dislike), and then there was the everything with Kylo Ren.

"--oh! Yes. Yes, please. I've had fish before and those don't look burned at all!" She couldn't keep the wonder out of her voice.

[lasthumanvoice]

"A goat is an animal with horns and hooves with a bad attitude. They eat plants and fibers and aren't picky about them. Their milk can be used to make cheeses."

He stands to get Rey some fish--and a few other things, including some of Cesar and Magne's corn fritters and some apple cider to drink. He is now an honorary Jewish grandmother, making sure the kid has enough to eat.

[makesrocksfloat]

"Oh. We definitely don't have those. Or at least not a--a goat." She'd seen plenty of Luke milking that odd sea creature, but as lean as she'd grown up, she'd never been brave enough to ask for any of the being's milk. It was green and it smelled oddly tangy. "Are there cheeses here?" She hated sounding like such a scavenger, but cheese was something she'd ever heard about, never saw in person.

Rey's eyes widened and she looked almost overwhelmed by the amount of food and drink being offered to her, but she knew better than to look a gift happabore in the mouth. She took it all eagerly and tried to remember to not inhale the food as quickly as she wanted to. Between bites, she offered "I'm Rey. New here."

2 | Among Us + Lethal Company OC

[impostor_syndrome]

One of the strangers is wearing what appears to be a purple environment suit of some kind, but clearly isn't concerned about keeping it sealed, from the way they're inserting piece after piece of sliced meat via one of those tined metal implements into the open front window of their helmet. Occasionally pieces of vegetables too, but mostly meat. They stop eating long enough to answer the question.

"That one's goose, I think. It doesn't taste like chicken but there's only so many birds around here."

[makesrocksfloat]

Rey's seen environmental suits before, but she must admit she's never seen them in purple before. Maybe purple means something important to their people? But what really amazes her is that they're willing to open it enough to have their fill of food.

And she felt her cheeks heat in a blush. "...what're those? Other than birds, I know you can eat birds, but the ones on Jakku were always too skinny and gamey to be worth it."

[impostor_syndrome]

"Yeah, they're both birds. Edible meat and eggs. Geese live by the water and I think they migrate? Chickens are domesticated and mostly live on farms, and they're flightless." They're a bit more familiar with chickens, and running up against the limits of their knowledge of geese.

Jakku isn't a celestial body Purple's heard of, but that's not remotely surprising since even before they started meeting people from other universes they didn't know the name of every world with a spaceport. "Climate must have been harsh there."

[makesrocksfloat]

"Geese sound kind of like Porgs, but the Porgs are pretty small and, uh. Cute? I mean, I'd eat one if I had to, but I'd be a little sad about it," Rey said thoughtfully. She knew what it was like to go after the option of last resort, though thankfully she hadn't had to on Ahch-To.

Rey's look turned far away for a moment. "Yeah. It is. Blazing hot by days, freezing at night, and sand everywhere." She wondered if what Kylo Ren said about her parents was right. She knew what he described often happened there.

3.

[sensitiveapple]

One plate starts a cascade and Misa quickly uses the Force to catch the plates, restacking them upon the other woman's pile. "Not bad, but you are unused to reaching for the Force." She says, though not critically. Instead, it's said curiously.

In Misa's time, people of all ages join the Order, but she's never seen this woman around Tython, or Coruscant.

"My name is Misa, I'm a Jedi Padawan of Master Terrik." She says, with an easy bow. She's wearing her Jedi robes, made in blues, though her tabards are green.

eeeee!! ❤️

[makesrocksfloat]

Rey is shocked when she feels the Force at work in the young woman who caught her plates. As far as she knew, it was only her, Luke, Leia, and Be--Kylo Ren who were able to use the Force left.

But she doesn't feel anything like the darkness which had clung to Kylo tighter than his cloak, the apathy which Luke had, or the banked coals of Leia, in this young woman the Force feels alive. Alive and well.

As the plates bobbed merrily in the air, Rey took a hard swallow and managed to get out, "Jedi...Padawan? Like in the days of the Old Republic?"

[sensitiveapple]

"Old Republic?" She asks, cocking her head to the side, and offering a steadying hold to the plates so they don't fall. "We are part of the Republic, for sure, but there is nothing old about it."

Misa wonders where this woman is from, talking about an Old Republic. She is not Sith, nor Dark Side coded. That much is true. But she can detect the banked power in the young woman.

"Are you not part of the Order?" She asks. People slip through the cracks, for sure, with the end of the Sith War and the Treaty at Coruscant.

[makesrocksfloat]

Rey's eyes widened for a moment, but she tried to not react too visibly. "Oh. Then I guess I was wrong?" But wrong by how many generations?

Rey clings to the Light with both hands. Despite her deal with Kylo Ren, she wasn't about to turn Dark, even though she knew her temper and her enjoyment of battle probably weren't exactly Light.

"No, I am. Kind of. My, uh. My master wasn't exactly devoted to my training." Which she guessed she could understand. To try so hard and have everything end so horribly...it was hard to not take it personally that Luke didn't want to formally train her, but she knew he had his reasons.

2.

[mistertwister]

The young green-skinned man to her right turns, prairie-grass hair rustling, and quickly swallows his own food so he can answer.

"Venison, looks like. Comes from deer. And I never know what's normal for anyone anymore so I can explain what a deer is if I need to."

[makesrocksfloat]

Rey grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, then I'm gonna be one more 'cause I've never heard of deer before. It smells delicious, though."

[mistertwister]

"It's uhh, how basic to start... Roughly person sized herbivore? Four legs, end in hooves, the males have antlers." He highlights the last point by splaying his hands above his head in pantomime. "They're mostly a game animal, so you'll see 'em in the woods instead 'a the farms. Also I'm Okie, which I shoulda started with probably."

[makesrocksfloat]

Rey did her best to picture the animal described. She thought that maybe she had something of an idea about where they might live, at least. "Do they like forests? There's loads of green stuff there." Though her memories of Takodana were marred by capture.

"It's good to meet you, Okie. I'm Rey. Sorry for the weird question, all we really have on Jakku are carrion animals."

3.

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth can't help watching this rudimentary display of telekinesis. Although he has no Force knowledge in his world, he would no doubt be pegged as a Force sensitive were he to live in the Star Wars world. His telekinesis is about on par with Master Yoda's, being able to move and throw huge pieces of metal buildings if he chooses.

"Intriguing," he says at last. "Can you move anything larger than plates?"

[makesrocksfloat]

If Rey heard the word 'rudimentary' to describe her skills, she'd be angry. Even though it would be technically right since Luke seemed to want to do quite literally anything other than train her in the Force.

Though, she thought she'd eventually get a crash course in it, thanks to Kylo Ren's offer and her conditions on the offer. He'd already offered to be her teacher once, she didn't imagine he'd be willing to pass up the chance twice given that he'd agreed to spare the Resistance ships in exchange for her.

But now she was here, so how was it said on Canto Bight? All bets were off?

"Well. I don't know? I've never tried anything bigger or heavier. But you have the Force, you can move things, too?" Even though what she felt wasn't exactly the Force.

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth's social skills were not always the greatest, but he would probably be too polite to say that aloud while sane again after all he had gone through as an insane megalomaniac. And he was just curious where she had learned her abilities.

"The Force?" he repeats. "That is what gives you your power? I can move things, yes, but I have never heard the power called the Force."

[makesrocksfloat]

Truth be told, she wasn't sure how she learned, either. She followed a probe back into the other's mind and that seemed to awaken the Force within her. Now, she couldn't turn it off, not that she would even if she could.

"Yeah, that'd be it. It's what binds everything together, Light and Dark. But not everyone can use the Force and those who do, they usually settle on one of the two. I use the Light." Most of the time Rey used the Light, but she was unsettled about how easily the Dark came to her. All she could do was try to keep laser focused on the Light.