[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

[lasthumanvoice]

This is, in the scheme of things, absolutely not a fancy to-do. It's a tent in the Festival Green and whatever people felt like whipping up. But it is a relatively large gathering, noisy and full of joyful chaos. There's a few Pokemon (yes, Pokemon) gamboling around the legs of the tables, and people having warm conversations across the room.

Cecil, the majordomo of this madness, notices a new face, but doesn't bound over until after Artemy has a plate. Still, once he's sat down, there's an almost comically bright grin turned toward him.

"Happy Yamsgiving. Hi, you're new!"

[medekh]

To be entirely fair it's more food than Artemy's seen ever in one place at one time. Anything meriting that amount of food is fancy in his book.

Artemy absolutely at some point raised an eyebrow at the strange creatures and made a mental note of them. Whatever they are, they seem to be harmless. His first thought is local fauna, but then how they evolved to suit their current habitat is entirely beyond him... perhaps they're more like local spirits.

He makes a mental note to ask someone, and sees Cecil approach. Great timing. Artemy doesn't return the smile, instead he simply gives a curt nod.

"That I am. Artemy Burakh, at your service..." He pauses, mulling the word over in his mouth, "And a Happy Yamsgiving to you as well. I am assuming the cause of celebration correlates to this massive feast?"

[lasthumanvoice]

"Yes! Kind of. This is the first Yamsgiving. It's a celebration dedicated to the goddess of the harvest and autumn and the sky, Celestine, and her gift of a never-ending sweet potato during the famine last winter. Parts of that same sweet potato are scattered through today's meal."

Cecil has a good voice; he's a radio host, and it kinda shows.

[medekh]

"Ah, so an offering as to appease her just in case there's a second famine." He says in understanding, local customs being something he has some familiarity in. "Still, some of this yam should likely be canned and preserved as well. Practicality can go a long way as well paired with reverence for the ones beyond our mortal realm."

[lasthumanvoice]

"It's gratitude, not appeasement. The mothers are loving deities. As for preserving the yam, we've done some of that, too. It's infinite."

He pulls the sweet potato out of a pocket, sets it on the table. It looks like a normal spud.

[medekh]

Artemy seems slightly doubtful, but nods gruffly nonetheless. To him there's nothing wrong with a heaping plate of cynicism and everything wrong with blind faith.

"I am glad to hear you have preserved some of these yams." He replies, seeming genuine... Artemy does take a moment to pick up the yam, observing it in the palm of his hand. "... It certainly doesn't appear to look out of the ordinary. And yet you say they are infinite?"

[lasthumanvoice]

"No, it is infinite. Behold!"

He takes a knife from the table and begins to cut slices off one end of the sweet potato. A few minutes later, he has about three yams worth of slices...and a mostly intact potato still in front of him. No, look, when he puts the knife away, it is whole. But there are still many slices, one of which Cecil bends down to give to someone's Pokemon under the table.

[medekh]

Artemy looks at the yam, blinks, and then takes the yam himself, pulling out a knife from his coat. He reproduces the experiment with precision and yet, the same thing happens. Before his eyes, the yam suddenly is whole again. He pockets the whole yam. For later. For experiments.

"... Are you certain these are safe for consumption?" He asks, holding the bit of sweet potato he cut off from the whole in his fingers, looking at the piece as if it might bite him.

[lasthumanvoice]

"No, give that back, it's mine." Cecil gestures when Artemy pockets the sweet potato. "And everyone's been eating it since January, so it ought to be fine. It's from the goddesses. They want to help us."

[medekh]

"I suppose any symptoms would have shown well before now... Perhaps I can borrow it?" He makes no motion to take the yam out of his oversized coat. Yet. "I can return it to you posthaste after my examination."

Aka inflict as much damage upon the yam as possible and see if it still ends up whole. For science, of course.

[lasthumanvoice]

"No, you can't just take it, especially during the holiday celebrating it. Please, give the potato back." Cecil turns to his first line of defense: a pitiful look, similar to a sad puppy.

[medekh]

Artemy seems entirely unmoved by the sad puppy look, but he still gives the spud back. He was only ever a thief by necessity and this was hardly one of those times.

"Fair enough, my excitement got the better of me, I apologize." He says, "However, if you do change your mind, please seek me out. I do wonder if we can figure out the mechanism behind this phenomena, and then apply it to something other than a simple yam... We could cure a lot more than just a famine."

[lasthumanvoice]

"The mechanism is already known: it's divine magic. Are you from a world without gods? Without magic? You're going to have a fun time adjusting, I think."

Not that Cecil hasn't had his own complicated time, coming from Night Vale to here.

[medekh]

"Oh, hardly. There are gods and magic, of that which I am certain. I was raised amongst such things, deeply entrenched even, though even such things have some ways of functioning that can be understood by man. A mechanism, if you will." He prattles on as if his topic of conversation is the most normal thing in the world, as if he's speaking common sense. "Though, don't get me wrong, it is not without effort that we learn such things. Easier said than done, as the saying goes."

[lasthumanvoice]

"The locals recognize several schools of magic that are practiced in this world: Practical, which draws magic from things, usually to perform manual tasks or for enchanting or alchemy; Elemental, nature magic shit; Radiant, magic from light and spirits; Baneful, for like curses; Astral, which is the coolest, of course; Eldritch, which is stuff I stay faaaaaar away from; aaaand Chaos magic, which is the fine thaumaturgical art of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing if it sticks. But like, even though we associate the goddesses with Radiant magic, what they do is more powerful than what we can. Same with the demons and Baneful magic."

He shrugs. "I've been learning from Dr. Coldwood, but I can only explain the stuff I do."

[medekh]

Artemy listens intently, making several mental notes as he does so.

"This Dr. Coldwood certainly sounds like a good person to know." He says, hoping the hint will get the other man to tell Artemy where to find this Coldwood.

[lasthumanvoice]

Cecil can almost feel himself becoming a guidepost NPC, the kind with blue-colored links in their dialogue you can click to learn more on a given topic. He doesn't mind this one bit.

"He lives in the lighthouse. His ex-husband is also a magic-user, Dr. Neil West. He does weird dream therapy magic stuff."

[medekh]

He gives a nod, committing the important NPC dialogue to memory.

"I will have to seek him out at some point, I do find all of this fascinating." Artemy says with the same stoic disposition as he's had almost this entire conversation, sans the infinite yam. "I must also ask, if you don't mind horribly... these creatures."

He points down to one of the pokemon underneath the table in demonstration.

"Are these another biproduct of the magic here? Spirits, perhaps?"

[lasthumanvoice]

"Ah, imports from another universe, like us. They have elemental affinities and show up in the wild a few times a year."

Cecil looks down. "Not sure if that's a wild one or if it's been adopted."

[medekh]

Artemy looks curiously under the table, and then, despite his large stature, gets down on his hands and knees to look closer.

"What say you, Naayze?" He asks the creature in a calm voice, "Are you a creature of the woods?"