September Event - Guest Appearances

[pumpkinhollow]

GUEST APPEARANCES

Ignition

September 20th is the Autumnal Equinox. Many places across the world of Concorde celebrate the first day of fall. While various nations and regions have their own cultural practices surrounding it, nature is god everywhere. And so the inception of Mother Autumn’s domain is universally recognized, even if the names change from place to place. But on a little island named Marrow, in a little town called Pumpkin Hollow, there is another reason to celebrate.

The birth of Dahlia Leeds is not so important an event that it supersedes Celestine herself, and neither Dahlia nor anyone in town is foolhardy enough to claim as much. In fact, after the events on this very same day last year, one might argue that perhaps her birth at least started out as a bad thing. But she is certainly the wealthiest person in town. It is through the combination of substantial wealth and a generous heart, two things that are very seldom found in the same place, that we end up with a soiree where the birthday girl would rather spoil everyone else on her day than herself.

The doors to Leeds Estate, which presides proudly over the town upon its throne at the crest of Founder’s Hill, are flung wide open. Large sums of Brass are paid to caterers, florists, and seamstresses to make sure this place is decorated to the nines. Some businesses labor all year, just to prepare for the handsome payoff they’ll get from this event alone. And you, dear neighbor, are invited. Not only are you invited, but you are dressed for the event in whatever your heart desires, completely at the birthday girl’s expense. Dahlia ensures no cost nor conflict stands in between anyone in town and a much-needed break. She is determined for this birthday of hers to be a good night.

Or else.

Incipience

{ The timeframe between ignition and the peak of burning, where a small, contained fire spreads and grows gradually into an established flame. All it takes is a spark. }

The whole town is abuzz as preparations for the gala begin. From the moment people begin to wake up for the day, the air throughout Pumpkin Hollow just feels electric with excitement. After August, people have been needing this lift in morale, and after how last year’s gala went… well, there’s a lot riding on this one. And Dahlia seems much more in control now.

Speaking of being in control, the whole lead-up process has been incredibly organized. You wake up to a delivery--- your outfit, perfectly tailored and completely paid for. Accessories are included. She truly thought of everything.

It’s noteworthy that Dahlia’s invitations this time included another name beneath her own. “Suzanne Marie Dyneax,” it said. Most people don’t know the name, but gossip gets around in a small town like this. It’s not hard to pick up on the fact that this probably refers to Susie, one of the teenagers that Dahlia recently moved into her home, whose own birthday was ruined by Seemingly’s attack. Gift baskets have been delivered to others whose days were in proximity to the disaster--- Zivia, Capochin, even CT. Wine, fruit, and sweets, along with a birthday card. Dahlia has said in the past, “my birthday is your birthday,” but never has that felt more true.

With businesses mostly closed for the celebration, you are left with the majority of the day to prepare in relative peace. For many of the women in Dahlia’s inner circle, there is even a pre-party group dressing room set up on the third floor of her home. Only those who received her special invitation (Susie, Noelle, Fever, Cassandra, Anya, Alice, Patty, Melanie, Basira, Elsie) are permitted to join, but any friends or partners are gladly invited to wait at the bottom of the stairs for the girls to make their grand entrance.

The food is laid out, flowers placed, dresses laced and buttoned. The clock strikes 6pm, and the fun begins.

FLASHOVER

{ The moment when a blaze reaches its maximum size and heat, and the radiant heat in the space is such that all combustible materials ignite at once, allowing the flame to steadily and freely burn for the rest of the night. }

By the time it reaches 6:15, the ballroom is already flooded with eager dancers and hungry dinner guests. After all, the whole town is invited, and everyone’s excited to see Dahlia’s beautiful new ballroom and take a load off.

The music is elegant, played by a rotating cast of musicians who join the party when their act is over. The food is extravagant--- Dahlia and two of her partners are some of the biggest foodies in town, so this is expected. There is talking and laughing and the swirling of ballgowns, and all is well.

But there is a guest you do not recognize in the corner of the ballroom. An older man with white hair, strong features, and a dour expression. You can see Dahlia eyeing him, then flitting over to him, then talking to him. Her expression shifts from anxious, to annoyed, to resigned, before at last she sighs heavily and leaves him to it. Whatever it is that’s going on, clearly it’s something Dahlia is willing to begrudgingly tolerate in order to get back to having fun.

The reason for the disturbance becomes clear in short order, but by the grace of Celestine (and perhaps Eligos), it isn’t a reality bending nightmare or an attack by some monstrous beings. It is simply more guests.

A lot more, in fact.

Those who were on the island in September of the previous year will recall the Visitor’s Center, which appeared briefly just past the beach and served as temporary living and meeting quarters for visitors from the homeworlds of current residents. It would seem that this is a repeat incident. For the night of the gala, one to two “plus ones” have been invited for the vast majority of offworld residents. Most of them are friends or family who are happy to see their guests--- but this is ultimately a working of Eligos, so naturally, this is not always the case.

At the very least, Eligos seems to have been generous with his own granddaughter. As she turns away from him, she very nearly runs into someone much shorter than her. A dark haired human man with dwarfism. He laughs at the accident, grinning up at her as she stares back at him, utterly baffled. Then, petticoats billowing out, Dahlia sinks to the floor and embraces him as tight as she can, head pressed to his chest with little regard for her carefully-styled hair. Even those across the room can hear her shout his name. ”Jonah!”

Within the hour, the ballroom is packed with nearly double the people originally expected, turning the party livelier than it’s ever been. Tearful reunions, laughter, dancing, mischief, romance, sparring, cruelty, and even proper, righteous violence. Truly, this Leeds Gala will be one for the books!

--------
[ OOC reminders: each apped-in player character is entitled to one or two guests from their homeworld. This can be former selves, family, friends, enemies, and they do not have to be from the character’s exact canonpoint. They can be from the past or the future. You may play them yourself, ask another member player to do it, or recruit a non-member player to do so with moderator approval. Non-member players are permitted to join the Discord server while they’re active in this event! Threads you write for your own guests are eligible for AC for the character they’re there with, and threads you write for someone else’s guest can be used on the AC of a character of your choice. Just make sure to mark them as guest threads. After the gala, guests will be allowed to move freely about town, stay the night on Saturday and go home Sunday, or leave right after the gala if preferred. And last but not least, characters played in the gala can be apped directly from this event, rather than going through the normal arrival process. Let a mod know if you have questions, and have fun! ]

Smoldering

{ The decay of a flame as available heat, oxygen, and burning material gradually diminish. Eventually, the flames will recede entirely into glowing embers, glittering like orange starlight amid the ashes of what once was. }

The party rages well into the night. It’s not typical for residents of Pumpkin Hollow to stay out this late, with everything around here that goes bump in the night, but eventually party-goers begin to find their way out. They move in small groups, huddled around lanterns, may they ever stay lit. Perhaps the surprising bit is that their guests can go with them. There are even reservations made for board overnight at the Oak & Iron, all under the name “E. Rex”.

But alas, these reservations are only booked for one night. And by the time the sun begins to set on the darker half of the year for the first time, an unfamiliar black boat is moored at Jack's Marina. One that the guests will recognize as the vessel on which they arrived. They must leave by the time it becomes dark.

Or must they? Perhaps for a select few, they will fail to feel the call which draws them home. It is unclear why. There are many that Mortanne would have allowed residency for, if she could. But for some reason, all but a small few feel the pull. Perhaps Eligos has simply abandoned them here. (Or maybe none at all end up marooned and everyone goes home? That all depends on you, dear reader.)

When the sky goes dark, the aptly named Heavy Heart shoves off, with only her crimson sails hanging suspended seemingly in midair in the moonlight. The black ship is otherwise consumed by the night. And soon, even those flashes of red vanish into the distance.

Moments recede into memories, like a dying fire settles gently into glowing embers at the bottom of a hearth. The festivities are over, and the guests are gone. Life in Pumpkin Hollow resumes as before. But maybe just a little warmer and brighter.

“My birthday is your birthday,” as Dahlia often says.

Happy birthday.

References to the appearance of Leeds Estate can be found here!

Comments

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen follows without resistance, despite her entire body being a single tight coil of tension. The arm around her back is a reassurance in more ways than one—with someone so close, it's easier to reject the itch for violence as something external. Something not quite just her. (But isn't it, her? Isn't that why he was able to pull it from her so easily?)

"Yeah. Yeah, I— I know." She's just not sure it's a matter of let, if he decides to turn his eye to her. Keeping out of sight, his attention elsewhere, that's all she's got. She hates that that's all she's got. "Thanks, Susie. I'm sorry, this is— he was meant to be dead, like, his whole pocket-dimension collapsed dead."

[thrashmachine]

"Hey, you don't gotta apologize to me. ...Wonder why he'd get let in here? I heard from a friend that it's just temporary, but I dunno. Seems messed up, to bring somebody back from the dead who's... like that."

Maybe she'll have to go have a firm word with the guy who's responsible for all of this, bringing in people who seem to just be here to stress out the guests. Party-crashers gotta get what's coming to them, even if it's just getting chewed out by a sixteen year-old with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

"Hopefully he gets shoved right back in there after he's gone, but that's..." A beat, and she squeezes Gwen into her side a little bit, in sort of a clumsy walking half-hug. "It's only our problem if he makes it one. And we'll worry about it if it happens."

She wants to ask what he did, for someone like Gwen to be so scared of him, worried about what he'll make her do, but she puts that in her pocket for now.

"...Wanna help me steal a couple chocolate flowers off the big cake and go eat 'em in the garden?"

[thismaskismybadge]

She hopes that's it. That he'll be here for the night at most and then gone again. But if he can be brought back this time, what's to stop it from happening again? (Killing the demons who have the power to pull it off, she supposes. She doesn't want to think about that right now.)

Thank god for Susie. Something else to focus on and an excuse to get out of the same room as him is just what she needs.

"—do you want to see a web trickshot or do you just wanna sneak up traditional style?"

[thrashmachine]

There's a beat, and it's only when they pass far enough away, towards the edge of that arching, elegant doorframe that leads them away, does Susie take her arm away from Gwen's back, to put a hand on her shoulder firmly, meaningfully.

Only to offer her a lopsided, playful grin.

"Gwen. If I ever don't wanna see you do a cool thing with your webs, somebody's stealing my identity. You know I wanna see you do a trickshot."

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen snickers, twisting her wrists like she needs to limber up. "Duly noted! Okay, let's see—"

The cake's a decent way across the room from them, lots of different heights of people, lots of movement going on, and the targets themselves are small and possibly breakable. Eh. She's worked with worse.

One at a time would be safest but also less cool, so obviously she goes for two-in-one. A quick flick of her wrists and she sends out two very thin strings of web across the room to latch onto two of the chocolate flowers. Then a tug back, getting the angle and momentum just right to bring them back over so Susie can catch them.

[thrashmachine]

Susie watches her calculate, tail wagging at ridiculous speeds with excitement as she watches her in action. It all happens in a flash, really; one second, and those shimmering, silver strands are across the room, and back, sending little chocolate flowers hurdling over.

Naturally, Susie leaps to catch one in her hand, and sharp teeth are opened to catch the other in her mouth.

And she succeeds! Crunching it in her teeth, she passes Gwen her well-earned prize, brushed blue petals and a yellow center catching light in their light sugar-coating.

"You're way too good at that, holy shit. Have you ever thought about trying to do stuff with, like, a bow and arrow or anything like that? You got awesome aim. I bet I could even talk Dolly into letting you join some of our knife-throwing lessons sometime, too!"

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen accepts her own reward with a stupid little curtsy before straightening up and biting off a chocolate petal.

"No, uh— I've never really done anything, like, weapons-based. I mean— I probably could throw knives pretty damn well, actually, you're right, just uh." She clears her throat and continues in a too-fast mumble: "It's hard enough not hurting people with just my hands and stuff."

Right. Garden.

[thrashmachine]

It's not subtle, and even though it takes a few moments of their walking outside for those pieces to fit together. Oh. That's a familiar problem, isn't it? After what Gwen was stressing over with the notion of fighting the guy that caused all of this trouble, this all makes sense.

"...Huh," Susie lets out the breath as they cross the threshold from loud and vibrant indoors to quiet and chilled outdoors. "Yeah, I... I know how that is. Don't worry. You don't gotta. Maybe you can just come out and we can use your super good aim for like... a game, or something?"

[thismaskismybadge]

"That— would be cool, yeah. Definitely. Games are good, I can totally kick all your butts that way." It's not as solid and confident as it might usually be, but it's not entirely without it. "Sorry, I really don't mean to keep being a downer on your literal birthday, it's just—"

A sigh. She scuffs her feet against the ground.

"Everything lately keeps coming back to this one thing and I can't— I don't know. I don't like it."

[thrashmachine]

"Hey, no, it's cool. I mean... it's not even actually my birthday, y'know? This is totally a make-up thing. So."

She wishes she was better at this. That she were someone like Kris, someone like Ralsei, who always knows just what to say to the people who need it, not feeling like she's stumbling through a delicate situation, bumping into touchy points and old pain.

But she's got to try. Gwen's a friend. It doesn't matter what day it is, she's got to be there for her.

"What's the one thing? I mean, I dunno how much I can help, but... I wasn't there, for whatever it was, so maybe I can help with some kind of--- outside angle on it?"

[thismaskismybadge]

"I mean, you were sort of there for one of the times it came back around, actually, the uh— the whole snow duplicate. Thing. That was..."

Gwen's head drops back between her shoulders and she sighs, again. How to even explain all of this? It never gets easier.

"...the first year I spent as a superhero, I accidentally killed my best friend. He took this serum to try and give himself superpowers so he could be special like me and it went really wrong. It had the transformative effect he wanted, turned him into a big lizard, but he had no control. He started attacking people at our homecoming dance and I— I didn't know it was him. And I kicked him too hard into a support pillar, so the roof came down and he... he didn't survive that.

"But it also transformed him back to normal, and my dad found me over the body, and suddenly the whole city thought Spider-Woman murdered a fourteen-year-old kid. And that was my life for like, two years. Always, always aware of just how easy it would be for me to hurt someone again, or to actually— become the villain everyone thought I was."

She wouldn't have been able to articulate it like this before the last couple years. But a lot's happened.

"And like, that's my damage, whatever, I was... handling it," she wasn't, "but there was this thing, in the last dimension I was stuck. With that guy that turned up. And— sorry, this is a lot."