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[OPEN] FLOWER FESTIVAL
Who: Open Log (All)
Where: Point-à-Tarte
Summary: A festival of flowers.
Warnings: N/A
At Point-à-Tarte, at the edge of the largest park in Eddan, booths that have been worked on for the past week are finally being opened to the public. Colorful banners decorate every single tree and and even the dullest of areas are covered up in the most creative of ways.
The booths themselves have everything one could hope in a flower festival, from mountains of flower crowns and necklaces being given to every resident of Eddan for free to the flower-shaped candy to the city-approved businesses touting the latest and greatest of the upcoming flower technology. New flowers, some supposedly glowing under UV light and others made to look like galaxies, are being sold at eye-popping prices.
The food, as always, is delicious and fresh, with early spring greens and even flowers themselves being added to salads. The only negative to the entire festival (if one can call it that) are the giant counters displaying the remaining time before sunset that serve as a reminder of Eddan's strange nature.
Sunday's opening sees the release of over ten thousand 'floating' seeds into the wind, a promise from the city to continue to make Eddan the greenest city in the entire world. Each person coming to the festival is given tulip bulbs in a variety of colors to be taken home.
The mayor takes time to speak about the recent string of murders and assures the people that they city shall continue to be vigilant to make sure that its citizens are kept safe. This is greeted with cheers from most of the population. Even the rainy weather doesn't keep such a happy day down!
An hour before sunset, the opening ceremonies close with a fireworks show. Due to the fact that they must be released only during the day, the explosive components have been changed as to give the night varieties a run for their money.
As the bright lights fill the sky, those soon-to-be-Awakened may have a flash of a memory from their past lives, such as a happy moment they spent with someone close to them or a moment of glory. This will soon be drowned out by ringing in their ears. For a few, brief seconds, they may notice figures close by glow oddly, their forms becoming distorted, but before they realize what has happened, blinking returns their vision to normal.
The headache, however, lingers until bedtime.
Royal Mount opens its WonderWorld Park to the public on Monday. For its opening week during the festival, the rides are all free.
Green Valley Organizes a flower judging contest for the various schools on Wednesday. Students are asked to present their most beautiful and unique flowers. Flower arrangements are also judged and with prizes evaluated at over 20 000 Macca, the stakes are high!
Eastmount offers rides in flower-shaped carriages driven by mechanical horses that could almost pass off as the real thing. (Though it is only the latest technology, thus keeping the entire thing animal cruelty free!)
The Giant Float Parade on Friday afternoon travels around the vast forest of Point-à-Tarte. Each school has been encouraged to enter its cheerleaders and theater productions into the parade. The Flower King and Queen greet visitors at the very end, throwing little presents for the children.
The festival continues until Saturday Nightfall. The schools visit the festival in turn, sometimes for education courses about the various flowers and trees that dot Eddan's landscape, sometimes to show off flower and plant-based sculptures that the various clubs have worked hard on.
Where: Point-à-Tarte
Summary: A festival of flowers.
Warnings: N/A
" Ah... the Festival of Flowers while a dreadful deadline looms! Enjoy what normal life you may have left...soon you may long for the return of these simpler times..."
A week of celebration (General Prompt)
At Point-à-Tarte, at the edge of the largest park in Eddan, booths that have been worked on for the past week are finally being opened to the public. Colorful banners decorate every single tree and and even the dullest of areas are covered up in the most creative of ways.
The booths themselves have everything one could hope in a flower festival, from mountains of flower crowns and necklaces being given to every resident of Eddan for free to the flower-shaped candy to the city-approved businesses touting the latest and greatest of the upcoming flower technology. New flowers, some supposedly glowing under UV light and others made to look like galaxies, are being sold at eye-popping prices.
The food, as always, is delicious and fresh, with early spring greens and even flowers themselves being added to salads. The only negative to the entire festival (if one can call it that) are the giant counters displaying the remaining time before sunset that serve as a reminder of Eddan's strange nature.
Opening Ceremonies (Special Prompt)
Sunday's opening sees the release of over ten thousand 'floating' seeds into the wind, a promise from the city to continue to make Eddan the greenest city in the entire world. Each person coming to the festival is given tulip bulbs in a variety of colors to be taken home.
The mayor takes time to speak about the recent string of murders and assures the people that they city shall continue to be vigilant to make sure that its citizens are kept safe. This is greeted with cheers from most of the population. Even the rainy weather doesn't keep such a happy day down!
An hour before sunset, the opening ceremonies close with a fireworks show. Due to the fact that they must be released only during the day, the explosive components have been changed as to give the night varieties a run for their money.
As the bright lights fill the sky, those soon-to-be-Awakened may have a flash of a memory from their past lives, such as a happy moment they spent with someone close to them or a moment of glory. This will soon be drowned out by ringing in their ears. For a few, brief seconds, they may notice figures close by glow oddly, their forms becoming distorted, but before they realize what has happened, blinking returns their vision to normal.
The headache, however, lingers until bedtime.
Weekly contest (week prompts)
Royal Mount opens its WonderWorld Park to the public on Monday. For its opening week during the festival, the rides are all free.
Green Valley Organizes a flower judging contest for the various schools on Wednesday. Students are asked to present their most beautiful and unique flowers. Flower arrangements are also judged and with prizes evaluated at over 20 000 Macca, the stakes are high!
Eastmount offers rides in flower-shaped carriages driven by mechanical horses that could almost pass off as the real thing. (Though it is only the latest technology, thus keeping the entire thing animal cruelty free!)
The Giant Float Parade on Friday afternoon travels around the vast forest of Point-à-Tarte. Each school has been encouraged to enter its cheerleaders and theater productions into the parade. The Flower King and Queen greet visitors at the very end, throwing little presents for the children.
The festival continues until Saturday Nightfall. The schools visit the festival in turn, sometimes for education courses about the various flowers and trees that dot Eddan's landscape, sometimes to show off flower and plant-based sculptures that the various clubs have worked hard on.
Haruka Sorazawa (Lenka Utsugi) (OTA)
[Things have settled a little since the morning -- putting out various fires (sometimes literally) as everyone scrambled to put together the cafe, cram drink recipes, sneak the requisite staff-wide morning caffeine, and then somehow make it into their uniforms in between all of the other necessary setup -- but it's some time into the cafe's operating hours before Lenka finally gets dragged out from behind the counter to greet the customers proper.
He looks a little like he came through a hurricane, but that's the normal state of his hair anyway; it also means a perfect perch for the bright and distinctly lopsided flower crown someone's pushed on him. There's another circlet of flowers hanging around one of his elbows, so it's entirely possible that he escaped with minimum possible casualties to his dignity. For the moment.
He looks stiff and a little awkward in the light colors of the suit and tie (carefully straightened) as he goes around taking orders and clearing tables, but it seems more a function of the way the flower crown keeps sliding down into his eyes. Every time, he sneaks a glance back at the counter of the cafe in what looks like an entreaty for help, to absolutely no avail.
As he passes your table, he may nevertheless try his best to smile a little and look less forbidding than his eyebrows naturally make him look -- it's also possible some flower petals end up in your tea, but what else would you expect at a flower festival -- and perhaps make a quiet inquiry or two...]
... and that's the specials for today. Was there something you needed?
2. I'm Too Lazy to Make an Extra Toplevel So This is Fireworks, My Bad
[By the time the fireworks show rolls around, Haruka has been running around the festival at his various duties since sunrise and is just about ready to go home; he does stick around for the daytime show, though, because fireworks are rare enough the rest of the year due to curfew restrictions that he'll enjoy them when he can. He is yawning plenty as the crowd gathers, tulip bulbs from earlier in the day tucked safely in his pocket along with his gardening gloves, and thinking idly about whether he can just slink away straight after or whether he'll need to let some friends and club members know he's slinking away before they think he's fallen into the campus pond or something.
(Not that that's ever happened at an event or anything.)
The first firework sings into the sky, a flower of fire spreading with a muffled BOOM that will never quite be as dramatic or as bright as pyrotechnics in the deep night sky. Three more go up--
--ten, twenty, the number of enemies is countless as the flares blanket them. They spread across the sky like night falling, a dark curtain of definitely-not-butterflies in brilliant green and blue. From where he stands, hands set loosely upon his God Arc, he can see the whites of their eyes and hear the mass, restless chittering and chattering of them talking to one another. His job is to stop them from coordinating their attack, a near-impossible task even with two weapons in one.
A man in a trenchcoat and a girl in chic black and red, her soft hat a beacon in the high winds; he's peripherally aware of them as he prowls the top of the aerial transport, and viscerally aware of how dangerous and how reliable they are -- it's hard to breathe this high up, and the smallest wrong step will plunge him thousands of feet to the earth or into one of those chattering, toothy maws, but somehow it's exhilarating more than anything else.
Each step reverberates up his legs, clear and decisive. He breathes, moves, and then he can't quite stop.
His hands and feet move like they have a mind of their own, wrestling with the unfamiliar triggers and parts of his God Arc -- he loses of track of his own movements between one blink and the next, shoot, slash, shield, fly. He's racing against time, against the monsters, against the girl -- and it's beautiful and horrible at once, knowing he's enjoying the blood and guts raining down around his weapon and the bite of blade into flesh. He can feel himself getting stronger, faster and faster, a meteor of destruction across the sky who very nearly forgets what's down below or that there is a below at all.
The last of the fireworks crackle and flare across the sky and Haruka jumps, stumbling backwards a little. He's shaking with adrenaline and breathing hard and not at all sleepy anymore, and finally he ends up just sitting down hard on the ground where he was standing.]
3. Bittersweet Blooms Bode Best
[Things are a controlled sort of chaos both in the section of the gardening club pavilion where contestants are preparing and the actual contest pavilion where a ridiculous number of flowers of all sizes, colors, shapes, and diets have taken over to the point where it's actually hard to find the contestants in them. Anyone venturing in won't escape without some leaves, dirt or flower petals in their hair. Or flower crowns. Flower crowns are always with you.
Near the back, carefully tucked in a sort of alcove and kept a bit apart from the others, there's an entry that consists of a crafted trellis that looks rather like a starry night over a cityscape silhouette. It's roughly shaped but solid, and a unique sort of bloom is draped across it, striking deep purple flowers and the rare scarlet berry peeking out from between the leaves. The plant is taller than most people at the festival, and certainly towers over its master, who is crouched over its large pot and cleaning it out with gloved hands.
Or rather: he's cleaning it out and putting up a fairly large sign that blares DO NOT EAT in spiky red letters. Just in case you were thinking of munching on a leaf or something. If you get close enough for him to notice, Haruka will give you a small wave.]
Be careful. It's beautiful, but poisonous.
2
But it's been a long day of looking ridiculous and having fun, he's been all over the place and the fireworks heralding the end of the first day are more than welcome. It's eventful. By the time he's recovered himself, the crowd is starting to thin, and there's Haruka sitting on the ground. Uh oh.]
Haruka... Hey, you okay? [He kneels by him.]
no subject
He has to clap a hand to his mouth until the sudden nausea passes, gritting his teeth and shaking his head to banish everything for the moment. The chilling evening air helps, and the realization that he is in fact on the ground and someone is next to him. And he is also still in the middle of a group of people, which gets Haruka to pull himself back together and back to focusing on reality.
Still, he blinks in surprise at Lonán, because he doesn't remember seeing him earlier.]
I'm... okay. [and he is now, it's harder to literally fly off the handle when he has at least one fistful of dirt from gripping the ground helpfully] It's been a long day, I think.
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First of seven. Are you sure you're not feeling sick?
[It also helps distract him from....whatever that vision was. At least it wasn't murder this time.]
no subject
[Were he someone else, Haruka would at least attempt to smile or laugh it off, maybe casually turn the topic onto other things. And maybe he'd be up to his own brand of reassurances if he weren't still too busy processing the fact that he's gone from fighting flying eyeballs on a plane back to a mundane festival on the ground.
Lonán's words at least get him a little more focused; everything's still a bit shaky, but he can dust himself off and get to his feet again, anchoring himself a little more with each brisk movement. First, he checks on the tulips to make sure they haven't been crushed -- priorities. Then he stops to think for a moment.]
Maybe I didn't get enough sleep? [it's as much an excuse as it is an actual muttered thought to himself; some particular phone problems are to blame for that issue, but it's easy to gloss over] I'll just go to bed earlier. Sorry.
[--that's directed at Lonán. He'd been planning to head home as early as he could, anyway, but this complicates things a bit.]
no subject
You too, huh? [He hadn't really gotten back to sleep after that....disaster of a hallucination. Don't think about it. Talking about it just brings more headaches and gut-wrenching dread.] Don't apologize, just get some rest. Getting sick now of all times would be the worst.
[Haruka still seems a little out of it. If Lonán sticks around to make sure he gets home okay, can he still get back to the dorm before curfew? It would be cutting it pretty close...]
no subject
More importantly, he wants to make sure that won't happen again anytime soon-- if something like that vision hits at the dinner table, he's going to get carted off to the doctor's no matter how much he prefers to avoid that -- so he has to consider something other than going home right now.
(You, too, Lonán said, but his response slides away in the wake of a sudden hammering pain in his skull. He has to wrinkle his nose a little, but it's probably best to ignore it in light of everything else going on.)]
... Maybe I'll get some tea from the cafe before it closes. I don't think it's a cold, but...
[It's entirely whim, but the tea itself is a good soothing remedy for both headaches and whatever else is going on, and he can help a bit with cleanup before he leaves. It'll take his mind off things, and back to where it's supposed to be.]
no subject
Better to not let it turn into one, then. I'll go with you.
[He turns, feet already moving back toward the cafe. There isn't a lot of time left before curfew. They'd better get moving.]
no subject
[Haruka begins to protest, reflexively -- even if it is the beginnings of a cold, he's normally healthy as a horse and not so given to serious illnesses, and he'd feel bad pulling him away from the festivities when he's normally at the center of them -- but Lonán is already moving ahead through the crowd and it's a little difficult to shout above the buzz of everyone appreciating the fireworks and talking excitedly about what they want to do before sunset and for the next week.
By the time he manages to catch up, the cafe is already in sight and that... is probably that. He wonders if he should put this as another tally in the 'Lonán is mysteriously really good at getting his way' column. Maybe it's
Maybellinea King thing.He's distracted, anyway, by the realization that his friend has somehow managed to acquire more flower crowns than he'd seen him with earlier today. That is most definitely a King thing.]
... If you're here, I think they're going to give you more of these.
[Many of the employees have already been decorated throughout the day, and there seems to be no end to the amount of flower weaving the staff can do during downtime.]
no subject
It takes him a moment to figure out what Haruka means. ...Oh, right. flower crowns. He adjusts the trio on his head with an exaggerated sigh.]
I'll do my best to survive. I think I get fewer the less I fight it.
[Some people want him to look ridiculous, some people (mostly his fanclub) want him to wear their crown and no one else's.... He's expecting to have worn maybe thirty different flower crowns by the end of the festival, honestly.]
3
[Kyoko waves of the warning as she approaches, sizing the tree up. It looks roughly like any other plant; certainly not one that she expects to bare fangs and start pouncing people anytime soon and it seems relatively unlikely that anyone would find a way to hurt themselves on it. Then again, one of her mother's many favored phrases had been that "common sense is not so common," so perhaps somebody might start tampering with and chomping on bits of it.
Either way, she can't deny being a little curious,]
So what is it?
no subject
[... is what he apparently felt the need to clarify, first of all. Is he serious about it? He's certainly explaining it with an absolutely straight face, but those who know him would know that's his face all the time, so the jury is out.
Haruka hasn't yet encountered anyone trying to eat any of his plants, but then again he doesn't usually cultivate ones with blooms and berries at the same time; this particular specimen is striking in both aspects, though. It would have been a waste not to take the challenge. That being said, in the long history of the festival there's definitely been tales of people mistaking contest entries for salad. People will be people.]
It's bittersweet nightshade. Different from deadly nightshade. [something that he always has to clarify, as he finishes fixing the sign and steps aside a little so she can see it up close] It is still poisonous, but also used in medicine.
no subject
She decides not to think too hard on that question, isntead approaching the tree. She stands on her tip-toes as she look at it up close. It's quite pretty, she has to admit. Still, she cocks her head to one side.]
Tat's kind of weird, isn't it? Using a poison for medicine.
no subject
That being said, possibly plants with a literal bite would have been easier to deal with. Everyone loves a pitcher plant, after all. For the record, he's had enough questions about deadly nightshade that that will likely be his next signage project if it keeps going.
For the moment, he still has gloves on, so he can reach out to lift some of the abundant foliage out of the way to show Kyoko the smaller blooms and unripened berries hidden underneath. Little bits of the background trellis wind through, too, like the plant is climbing the night sky.]
It's more normal than you think. [there's a lot he could say about poisons and medicine, but she's likely not here for a history lesson, and Haruka isn't given to lecturing, anyway] They used to use plants like this for almost anything. This one is for scrapes and inflammation. Cancer, too.