⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Winter Breaks: Day 6 - Day 25
Where: THE MOON
What: The carnival journeys to one of its moons to celebrate the Lunar Solstice. More information here.
Warnings: Winter fun.

MOON WALKING↴ The journey to the moon only takes a blink of an eye, but it leaves the carnival far away beneath you. The second moon can be seen on the peripheral, massive compared to its usual view. At least when the holidays start out, there will be no notable wildlife on the moon, though this is something you can talk to the Ringmaster about if you think it needs a change. It sounds like this is the first time she's used it in quite a while - it probably needs some dusting off! Claim your cabins, and proceed to... well, do whatever you want! There is no rush and little obligation, besides to enjoy yourself. For real, this time. She promises there will be no vampires. Or, at least, none that don't already work for the carnival. ► CABINS: Living arrangements are character choice for this event, and there are a variety of cabins of various sizes, mostly built to house 2-6 people, though you can fit more in if you squish. They are all made of wood and of a rustic design - no fancy modern furniture, here! Each building is housed with a fireplace and the needed amenities. You can pick up materials to cook with the private kitchens if you like. Theoretically, you could spend the whole holiday sequestered away, watching the snow fall. Some of them also have outdoor hot tubs available! ► ACTIVITIES: Activities are mostly going to be character driven, though there will be some large group games like bingo and maybe a poker tournament happening at some point in one of the festival halls. Otherwise, there is a lot to offer: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, ice sculpting, snowball fights - it goes on! If you'd like to run a winter activity, just let the mods know, and we will get the word out there for you. ► FEASTING: Every day isn't a full-out feast because that would get a bit unhealthy, but there will be a number of specific feast events over the holidays where everyone is encouraged to let out their inner hedonist and stuff themselves. There will be one big feast per week, with smaller but also delicious meals offered in between. The feast dates will be B12, B18, and B24. There's also plenty of alcohol available for anyone who wants it. ► SHOPPING: As mentioned in the planning post, there is a massive market being run by the World Walker Caravan! The Ringmaster has given everyone 1250 credits to spend on items, but there is a caveat - must spend at least 500 of those credits on gifts for other people. And it better be a good one, if you only buy one! (She will ask that you do not buy her presents, however. She appreciates the sentiment, but it seems sort of silly buying her things with her own money! If you'd like to gift her, please have it be something more personal or handmade, but you are not obligated to get her anything at all.) ► TREATMENTS: The beginning of the holidays will also be about the time that the emergency Medical Team will have finalized their treatments for the Prince's poisoning. Watch out for further information on that - and make sure to get treated if you are suffering from petrification or poison induced illness! The holidays will be a lot more fun that way.

Comments

[hurtcomfort]

Though Cole knows that feeling. Thinking of someone else and just feeling what someone else thinks about them. Five's friend and his mother. The real Cole and his experiences. It's...challenging. Cole can't help but admit to himself: Five's doing a better job at it than he ever did. He just made himself forget.

She's asking a question though. And at her question, Cole shakes his head a little. "Not really. I just know the hurts and the happiness." And the thought of Five's not-mom made her happy. So Cole wanted to take it, nurture it, keep that feeling going so Five could continue to be.

[brightspot]

Five's doing the best she can. It helps that the memories are not incessant, but happen kind of randomly, and mostly in dreams. And, man, she'd been so tempted to just stay in those good memories forever while she was on the medical table. It had taken Six coming into her own head after her to convince her to let go, to live life as it was happening as opposed to the recorded memories of other people's lives. (Of course, the 'good memories' from her crew mates she did have were... not very much. They'd all had a pretty long run of bad luck. Herself included.)

The hurts and the happiness. The way he says it, pulls a smile at the corner of her mouth, as vague and confusing of an answer as it is. It sounds a little childlike, almost. He's definitely a unique individual, that much is for certain.

She reaches for the other end of the strand and begins helping add the popcorn and cranberries to it. "Don't know exactly what that means, but okay. I'm Five, by the way. But maybe you already know that..."

[hurtcomfort]

Cole's face lights up as Five starts adding popcorn and cranberries. There's something almost childlike about that smile, just how delighted he is that she's helping, before it settles back into Cole's neutral expression.

There we go. They'd finish this one. And then they could do another for some more of the trees.

"I'm Cole," he answers, as he puts another cranberry on the string. "I'm the same as you. Brought to the ball, lost and confused, stolen and saved by the Ringmaster." He got brought here via fourth wall day nonsense as well. And Cole has a feeling Five might want someone to empathize about that pit of trouble with.

[brightspot]

The way Cole briefly smiles and his face lights up doesn't go unnoticed by Five, who tilts her head and briefly wrinkles her nose in mild amusement before she's back to smiling herself. If he'd wanted her to help that much, he could have asked! But she's glad she seems to be doing the right thing here, anyway. Maybe that's another way in which they're alike: that seeing someone else happy makes them happy? Or maybe that's the same for everyone.

Listening to him recount how he got here, Five nods in understanding. "Uh huh. Sounds right. Guess that means we're both pretty new to all this, huh?"

She can only assume from the 'I'm the same as you' that Cole either had seen her at the ball, had heard her maybe mention being brought in at that time to someone, or... it's like how he knew the whole not-mother memory. Because he knows 'the hurts and the happiness.'

[hurtcomfort]

"Mmhmm," he responds, with a little nod. Both pretty new to all this...what an understatement. Cole is definitely new to all this, both the carnival and some aspects of dealing with people. After all, it's only been a few years for him (he thinks), mistakes might be made. But Five seems nice. Five might help.

"We can learn what to do together. We could help each other if needed?"

There's a little questioning tone at the end of that statement. They could help each other, right Five? Maybe?

[brightspot]

"Of course!"

It's not like it's something she needs to stop and consider first. To her it's more like a given. She says it with a beaming smile in Cole's direction, then she holds up her end of the strand close to her face like she's examining the work she's done so far.

Okay, so it's not fixing a plasma injector or hacking into the Galactic Authority database, but she'd still like to get it right! And, hopefully, make it look pretty?

"Was there something else you needed help with? I mean, other than stringing together food you don't eat?"

[hurtcomfort]

...is there something he needs help with? Not really. He was planning on doing this himself. But now that Five's here, he can at least ask her about something.

"What do you do to celebrate the holidays?" That's how she can help! By telling him what sort of traditions she had so he could help by making those traditions happen. Of course, Cole doesn't realize that his question is pretty much coming out of nowhere for poor Five.

[brightspot]

Coming out of nowhere, sure, and what's even more awkward is it's something that Five doesn't have an answer to. Her smile falls and she bites her lip, dropping her gaze.

"Uhm. I don't really know..."

She tries to think back to whatever of her own memories she's been able to recall. There'd been a wreath of some sort, up in the hideout where she and the other orphans had stayed, in the memory where... Where she'd learned they were all killed, because of her, because of something she stole.

"There's a lot of memories that I can't... access? Because of something that happened." Because of her. That was also her fault, that everyone's memories were blocked off, and that Five ended up with the other's memories buried in her head somewhere along with her own. "I guess this is sort of... my first holiday season, then."

[hurtcomfort]

Oh. So she was like him, more like him than he initially realized. Lost, confused, memories that might be hers but might be someone else's, who's the real Five and who's the real Cole? Still, Cole was able to sort through his muddled memories. Five should eventually be able to do the same.

"Then we're going to make new traditions." He says that as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. Five isn't sure what celebrations to have? Time for new celebrations.

[brightspot]

For the most part, she's just... Sort of given up on trying to sort through memories. Whatever memories surface, well that's fine, but she's whoever she is now, she's Five. Not Das, not Emily Kolburn. Five. And that's what matters. Who she's become since the memory block. Who she will become.

So, the mention of making new traditions sits pretty well with her, and, slowly, she feels a smile pull at her lips again. "We could do that."

With the part of the strand she's managed to finish, she lightly lays it over Cole's head (or, you know, big floppy hat), just to be silly. He's certainly not a tree, but apparently she's decorating him anyway.

[hurtcomfort]

Cole...just looks so amazingly confused for a moment. Huh? Why is this on his head? What's Five doing? Is this her idea of a new tradition? Why does it involve his head? He puts one more piece of popcorn on the strand then pauses for a moment, moving a hand up to his hat to feel what's on there. Yep, it's the popcorn and cranberry strand.

Cole still looks confused but he's rolling with the punches. Without saying anything, he reaches over to lightly lay the strand he's working on over Five's head. If this is going to be a new tradition, then he's going to do it right!

[brightspot]

There's a slow grin happening on Five's face that she's fighting against as she quietly observes his reaction, half-pretending she's not watching by idly sorting through some popcorn and cranberries. But yeah, no, her attention's really on Cole because it's kind of funny.

Then she's blinking silently in surprise as suddenly there's a strand over her own head, and she can't stop the smile when she reaches up to feel it there. She glances over at him without moving her head to make sure that the strand doesn't fall off.

"Well? How's it look?"

[hurtcomfort]

"It looks like you have popcorn on your head." Which, it doesn't look bad. But then again, it doesn't look good either. Cole doesn't really know much about things like physical appearances or what people think looks good or looks bad. He just knows about himself.

Still, he tilts his head slightly as he gives Five another once-over.

"It might be better if we made it into a circle. People wear things like that where I'm from." Headwraps, headbands, sometimes practical, sometimes not. This obviously would not be practical, but who knows. It might look nice. "The red is good against the green."

The green of Five's hair, that is, though Cole doesn't specify.