pumpkinhollow | July Mini Event

Pumpkin Hollow Community Bulletin

Main Nav | Permanent Bulletin | Calendar |

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

We look forward to seeing you there!

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He chuffs out a tired, tired laugh. "And here I thought you were having a blast."

His talons fidget with the edge of his cup. "That labyrinth was... yeah. I saw her in those glass tubes, when we were smashing everyone out. Except when I tried to get her, she just... dissolved. So. There's that. I hope that just means I shot her out into subspace for some other multiverse to pick up."

She shrugs a shoulder. "I like this place. Doesn't make the hopping around any easier."

Daisy drags her tongue over her teeth. She wishes she could believe those souls were sent somewhere, but even now she finds it hard to believe they did anything but vanish. Still, better than being stuck in the Nothing for eternity.

"Didn't see Basira in one. But she was probably there. Somewhere." Til all the smashing, of course. "They're free. One way or another. And they're still out there. One way or another. Not even knowing we're missing 'em so bad."

"Somewhere," he repeats. "And they'll live the lives they were supposed to, for better or for worse."

Almost definitely better in his case, but he won't speak for Daisy and Basira, given their... everything.

"I want to still be holding on. She was such a rock in my life for... decades, honestly, because before Rita and I were married she was there. In the loop. The one person who was always too smart for me. The person who saved me. And now she's just. Not there anymore. Just like that. I've known her for so long and I've only been away for two or three years. That's chump change in comparison, right? But."

He stares down at his wine. "Damn, am I tired."

If not for the Apocalypse, Daisy imagines Basira would be better off, now Daisy's gone for good—at least she would be in the long term, once the pain of killing Daisy faded.

But so long as the world is ruled by the Fears directly...

She tries not to think about it much.

"You knew her a lifetime." Several, more than he can even count—but he doesn't need her to say it quite so plain. "Course you're tired. Only knew Basira maybe— a decade? And it still feels like. There's a hole. Nothing else fits it the same."

She loves Erin, she cares about so many more people than she once did, but they have their own space.

"Yeah. You get it. You loved someone too, and got her dangled in your face from an entire world away. I'm sorry about that, for what it's worth."

He decides to knock back too much of that wine at once.

"I hope I see her again as much as I'm afraid to. Does that make sense? I just. Wanna be able to put the whole thing down. I wanna be able to put everything down."

"Mm. Makes sense to me. See her and she can be taken away again." It's the worst thing about caring, she thinks. The things you care about can always be taken away. "Feel similar about 'sira sometimes. I don't— think I know how to face her again. But if she turned up—"

There'd still be no keeping them apart. She knows that. No matter how much she knows that they weren't good for each other towards the end. They're too entangled to separate. She'd want to try and make it... better.

Instead of saying any of that aloud, Daisy just shakes her head.

"Yeah," he sighs. "... yeah."

He lets the morose silence sit between them for a while, the sound of the waves curling in to fill in the space. He wants to lie back on the ground, but then he'd be finding sand in his feathers for the next five years.

"I didn't send out a lantern for her since she's not really, like, technically dead. Maybe I should anyway."

Daisy's content to sit with the silence for a time, her own lantern still sat in her hands as she stares out.

She glances at Phil out of the corner of her eye when he speaks again, nodding her head to the side. "Think the missing 'em part's the point. If you do, I'll finally let this one go?"

… Phil grunts as he pulls himself to standing.

“I’ll go get mine,” he says, and walks to where he’d left his things.

When he returns a minute or so later, it’s already lit. Rita Connors is written on it in his neat hand.

Daisy pulls herself up to her knees when she hears him coming back, holding her lantern lit and ready to set loose. "Alright, then. Ready?"

"No," he sighs petulantly, and steps towards the water with her anyway.

The ocean is still warm from the day's heat. Stepping into the waves, his fingers clutch the base of the lantern. He looks aside to see Daisy with him; and since there can hardly ever be a good moment for letting go, he sighs again, and straining against his bitter instinct, sets it down for the sea to take.

Daisy's touches the water just a split second before his does, a battle won in increments. Then she stands up straight again to watch it—them—drift away on the ocean current, and lets out a breath.

"Well. There we go."

"Yeah."

He watches them drift, becoming smaller and smaller, disappearing into the hundred others out at sea. Leaving.

...

He downs the rest of his wine, then says, "Let's go get a drink."

Daisy's attention snaps away from the lights and she nods, turning to walk back out of the water. "...yeah. C'mon."

July Mini Event - Seaside Sway

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

wrapping?

wrapping!