lostcarnival | ⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Holy shit, there's a snake?! Cole instantly retreats in on himself, moving his arms and legs closer to his body as if that'll prevent him from getting bitten by the snake. Hopped up on the drugs, this is just amplifying his wariness something fierce. He didn't see the snake, he can't feel the snake, but if it's not hurting or not scared then he might not feel it in the first place or it could be a different snake and this is not good, Cole is 100% convinced there's a snake in the cabin.

"Get on a chair," Cole tells Rita, frown on his face. "It can't climb, it won't bite if you're out of reach."

Right? Hopefully. Could snakes climb, Maker what if they could climb in the first place, this is a climbing snake isn't it, this is not good at all.

Right. She should've known. It's definitely not a good time to try and have a sincere talk with 9S. In fact, Rita feels a little stupid for trying. And speaking of stupid...

"You morons. There aren't any snakes here. We're on the moon," Rita reminds both of them, sounding exasperated and not budging from where she is. Not like she'd be scared even if there was one. Also, she's pretty sure snakes can climb.

9S' voice takes on that distinctive whine. "I'm serious! It's right there!"

He jabs a finger insistently towards the ceiling where the smoke snake is 'slithering' towards the corner. Why isn't Rita taking him seriously? Cole's taking him seriously. Cole gets it. Except snakes can fly now. So it might be worse than climbing snakes.

He lowers his hand, accidentally whacking it on the floor in the process. "Humans can live on the moon. We're on the moon. Snakes used to live in the same environments as humans. That means snakes can live on the moon, too."

Rita's argument is invalid.

"Many things live in the same environment as humans," Cole points out, accidentally undercutting 9S's argument and almost making it worse at the same time. "Like dragons."

And Cole just gets even paler because oh no, are there moon dragons?! There could be moon dragons, this isn't good, he doesn't even have his blades! How can he stop the moon dragons by himself, he can't really do anything about that!

"I don't have my knives," he mutters, more to himself than to the others. "Daggers dancing in the dark, it's protection even though it's hurting."

Cole is really not helping here.

"No knives," Rita declares in a stern voice. These idiots are out of their minds. The last thing they need is to start swinging weapons around.

With that out of the way, she whips her head back around to look at 9S. "Even if snakes could get to the moon, they wouldn't come here. It's too cold for them." That's not her best argument, but considering the situation, she figures simple arguments have a better chance of working than complex ones.

"And besides, if anything dangerous did get into the cabin, I would have blown it up by now," Rita adds in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Dragons!?"

That gets 9S to sit up abruptly. Except not really, because 9S' world tilts and he ends up slowly falling over onto his side with yet another solid sounding thunk. Dragons seem to feature a lot of Old World stories. Fearsome creatures that ate humans a lot of the time.

And there's one single record of a Real Dragon way back forever ago.

9S considers Rita's argument for a really really really long moment before he finally relaxes, mostly because of the threat that she'd destroy anything dangerous. Yeah. That's something he could picture her doing. He lets out a relieved laugh.

"That's Rita for you. Reliable Rita. That rhymes." It doesn't. 9S hums, satisfied that the threat of the snake is gone. "Mmm hey Cole? If you help everyone, who helps you?"

Still thinking about moon dragons, Cole puts his feet in the chair, sitting do that he can wrap his hands around his legs, resting his chin on his knees. 9S's question makes Cole look up at him. Who helps him? It's something Cole hasn't thought about much, but it is a question that makes sense. And it's one Cole has an answer for.

"My friends," he responds, as if it's obvious. "Both home and here."

It's said as he looks from Rita to 9S. At least in Cole's mind, these two count as his friends, ergo they're people who help him. Rita helped him get settled. 9S gave him a gift. They both answer his questions and explain concepts. It's simple enough in Cole's mind.

Well, at least that got them off the topic of snakes and dragons.

In truth, Rita has wondered about the same thing as 9S. She knows that Cole's a spirit of compassion, and that helping people is what he does... but from a human perspective, it's hard not to think it'd be draining, always worrying about others. But then, isn't 9S kind of similar? Living to serve humans...

As Cole answers, Rita catches his look and meets his eyes briefly, then turns away with her face slightly red. "I don't know about friends, but..." she starts.

"One of the goals of my research is the peaceful co-existence of humans and spirits. So... of course I'd help." It's an honest statement, but it's not her only reason. Rita's just too embarrassed to admit she cares about people, or considers them her friends. It's comforting to have an excuse, to act like it's all about her research.

It's kind of hard to see things like body language and human-shaped expression when he's flat on the floor and hallucinating snakes, so 9S totally misses the look Cole gives him.

"You'd help even if you didn't have to," 9S says from the floor, directed at Rita. Or maybe Cole? Or both. Both. Yeah, let's go with that.

But he's glad that Cole seems to have found his footing here. That he doesn't seem to feel so terribly alone.

There's a pause as Cole looks directly over at Rita. She's blushing. He can tell she's blushing. For all of Rita's 'it's not like we're friends or anything, I'm only doing this because you're a spirit,' it's obvious to Cole that they are friends and Rita would help him out even if he wasn't a spirit.

Cole has no concept of the term 'tsundere' but he's pretty much pegging Rita as one.

"If you say that," he says, with a little shrug. Though, back to 9S, sitting on the floor. "It's not a have to, 9S. It's what I am. I help because I'm me."

Because he's a spirit of compassion. Because it's in his nature to do so and doing so is the only time when Cole can feel whole and purposeful.

⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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