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pumpkinhollow) wrote2024-07-21 01:43 pm
pumpkinhollow) wrote2024-07-21 01:43 pm
July Mini Event - Seaside Sway
Pumpkin Hollow Community Bulletin
It’s the end of July. Summer is peaking, hitting its stride. In the forest, frogs sing and fireflies dance through the night, and dragonflies go about their business in the sun. In town, farmers roll up their sleeves and young ladies swap out their many layers for breezy floral gowns. And on the beach, swimmers take to the sea for water at its warmest and young crabs climb up from the sun-drenched sand. Kora’s glory at its finest!For about a week now, a flier has been up on the community bulletin board. :
Midsummer Beach Festival!
Join us on July 21st and 22nd for our annual beach bash! Organized by the Temple of Sacred Roots in tandem with Town Hall, all townsfolk are invited to join in for seaside festivities in honor of the height of summer. Activities will include:
- Live music (Sign-ups for performers will be available at Empty Pockets Music Bar)
- Locally made strawberry wine from last summer’s strawberries
- Beach pit barbecues for lunch on both days
- A hot food banquet for dinner on the 21st
- A fish fry breakfast on the 22nd
- Paper lantern float
- Beach games
- Tents and bed rolls for beach camping
And, as promised, the festival opens up on the afternoon of July 21st, where the smell of barbecue rises up from Tawny Beach. Tables sit on wooden plinths to avoid sinking in the sand, bearing fresh summer fruit and drinks. Pork, fish, and lamb roast in a sand pit. Enchanted barrels covered in magic frost keep frozen treats like orange juice shaved ice and strawberry sorbet cold. A station for assembling little wood-and-paper floating lanterns can be seen off in the distance and Cormac and the Banshees are setting up for their opening set. Tents and bed rolls have been set up toward the Marina. Literally everything is decorated with thin golden coins on strands of twine, sea shells, and sea glass. In the center of it all, stones have been laid into the shape of a massive compass rose, whose center houses the makings of a bonfire.
Those who were here last year will recognize that this festival is much larger than last year’s, and was not preceded with desperate pleas from Town Hall for help providing food and decor. It speaks plainly to the health of the town now. Even with all that has been going on, the growing population and renewed sense of community and purpose have improved matters around the island considerably.
Near the tent area, a family of crabs (one red, one blue, and three purple) can be observed. The small purple ones are poking each other with sticks. The Limoncello has made port, and Royal and his crew are splitting helper duty with the staff of Town Hall, and are dancing and partying the rest of the time. All is as it should be. For once, there is no dangerous surprise lurking in the shadows.
So, what’s on your agenda? During the day, volleyball, swimming, and a game that involves throwing small fabric sacks of dry lentils into wooden hoops in the sand can be enjoyed, alongside a plethora of frozen treats. At night, food and wine and lemonade are served at the banquet tables and lively music plays on the temporary wooden stage for dancing by firelight. There is also the lantern float, which encourages participants to send a glowing lantern out on the water in honor of the lost and the distant, ending the first night in a moment of peaceful sobriety. You may also notice a charming stranger milling around, cozying up to Royal, and drinking after nightfall--- a woman with dark olive skin, raven hair that soaks up the firelight, and rum brown eyes who wears a billowing blue dress and (whenever she hasn’t placed it onto someone else’s head for fun) a wide-brimmed black hat.
Then, at night, camp on the beach under the stars or head home by additional lantern light. The festivities will continue until the following afternoon! Feel free to share your beach fit in the fashion show thread below, as well. Enjoy!
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"What's your sister's name? What's she like?"
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He watches the stars gently sway above them.
"Her name's Barbara." Radar concentrates very hard on getting his sister's name out in one piece. "Barb. She's funny. She kinda taught me how to get in trouble. She always says 's okay if you break a coupla rules sometimes, y'know? You just gotta make sure it's for a good reason." He laughs. "And, 'n not get caught."
The laughter trailers off, and Radar sighs. "I dunno how long she's gonna stick around Ottumwa, though. Maybe she'll be gone before I get home."
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Unthinking, he leans his shoulder against Dahlia's.
"I bet they woulda too. And you'n her too." Another small sigh. "Y'know. I feel bad every time I think it, but there's a lotta people I wish would turn up here. I don't want 'em to die, I just wanna see 'em again. Intra, tro, um... I want my friends here to meet 'em. Like you and Barb."
He pauses, frowns as a sudden thought strikes him, and says, "Why's it always called 'getting on like a house on fire?' Who thought that up?"
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...Should he have said that? He can feel his cheeks heating a bit. Well, too late now -- and anyway it's true, he is gonna miss Dahlia a lot, and he'd miss her no matter what considering he's been her assistant for months and months. So there.
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She takes his hand, and Radar suddenly notices -- really notices, in a way his blurred-out brain hadn't quite before -- how close they're sitting together. That he's leaning against her, and can feel the way their shoulders press against one another. His whole face flames bright red so fast that it makes him dizzy (well, dizzier), and when he looks over at her, too, there's more than a glimmer of panic behind his glasses.
Okay. Okay, it's just your boss, Radar, your friend, you can breathe and say something, right? Right?
(His boss and his friend is so pretty, though.)
"Um." Good, that's one syllable down. Try another one! "Uh."
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Honestly, Radar looked less terrified talking to the Pine Devil than he does right now.
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There's a patient calm to her tone and her expression. There's no pressure. Everything is still fine. She'll follow his pace... with the occasional nudge if he's stalling out. But despite the beautiful stars and the glow of the lanterns all around, all she seems to want to look at is him. Hopefully that fact will offer some encouragement.
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Seconds slide by. And... Dahlia keeps holding his hand. Doesn't stop smiling at him like he hasn't screwed up anything at all. Has he even blinked in the last thirty seconds? Maybe he should do that. Maybe... maybe he should try to stop panicking a little and just -- hold her hand back. Yeah.
...Maybe he could slouch down a little and put his head on her shoulder? It's spinning an awful lot; it might be a good idea to do that anyway. So, very, very carefully: he does.
Probably good to wrap here! :D
It's a mistake. Not by any fault of Radar's---- frankly, he deserves better than this. But it's a mistake all the same, because of what Dahlia is. What's hiding under this pretty veneer. A mistake she's made before, almost beat for beat.
It's different, with Laios, or Daisy, or Jeff. They have reasons to understand her. They'd be hypocrites not to. She can rely on that. But Radar... there is a gentleness to him, a warmth that is so comfortable, yet so antithetical to everything that she is. He is a hearth and she is a wildfire. It is unfair to ask him to accept her as she is.
And so ensues the quiet bittersweetness of enjoying the moment, enjoying the relationship, with the understanding of an expiration date. Perhaps if he listens through the haze of his own mind, the alcohol, and the din of partygoers, he can hear her final thought before she lets her mind go quiet.
It's a good night.