[OPEN] FLOWER FESTIVAL

[cordibus]

Who: Open Log (All)
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.

Comments

II

[seasonsofdeath]

[He's clearly too busy to tutor his student during all that's going on, right? Right???

Unfortunately for Akira, no one else seems to know/think that, so at his usual time he shows up in the meeting place he and Adrian always settling in that, pointedly not reading his textbook and swinging his legs as he waits for his tutor to show.]

Nope, not skipping that

[draculabackwards]

[There are festivities ongoing, but Adrian isn't about to skip on his usual duties. So sadly, Akira, he is there with all of his books about one of your least favorite subjects.]

Hello, Akira. I imagine you'd rather be out at the festival about now.

but why

[seasonsofdeath]

Yeah. [He looks down for a moment before perking up, suddenly hopeful.] Can we go do that instead?

[pleeeeeeease]

[draculabackwards]

You are still obligated to have a math lesson...but. I suppose that you might like math more if you encountered it in real life. I am certain a festival will have ample examples for math. That way if your parents ask you, you can honestly say you did have a tutoring lesson.

[seasonsofdeath]

[ooooh-- wait this feels like a trick.]

Math in real life? [that doesn't sound right.]

[draculabackwards]

Of course. Math is everywhere if you know where to look. I will ask you to take a notebook and a pencil so you can write the problems down as we see them, but that's all you'll need.

[seasonsofdeath]

[That seems suspicious, but if it means not sitting here and doing math he'll take it. Akira grabs his notebook and one of his pencils, standing up from his chair with a smile.] Ok, I'm ready.

[draculabackwards]

[He wouldn't tax Akira too much, but they could figure out a few simple problems. Like the flat of flowers, for example.]

Here's your first example. Draw a little picture if it helps you. If this flat of flowers has five plants going lengthwise and four going width wise, how many plants are there?

[seasonsofdeath]

[Oh geez, this is like a word problem. Those are the worst...

Akira frowns, making a somewhat sloppy sketch of a box and drawing little flowers in the rows. ...This isn't a math problem so much as counting, the way he does it.]

[draculabackwards]

[Multiplication always gives Akira the biggest problems so instead of forcing him to memorize a table, it might be better to do it this way. Then they can add more practical applications later. He'll just wait until he's done.]

[seasonsofdeath]

Um... [hang on this takes a minute.] Is it 20?

[draculabackwards]

Yes, that's exactly what it is. Now here's something interesting. So you know that four times five is 20. If you're multiplying other things, it's basically adding that number to this total.

So if this where five times five, it becomes easier. All you do is add five to twenty. Or if you wanted to know what three times five was, you'd take away five from twenty.

[seasonsofdeath]

[Akira nods, slowly, trying to take it in.] Ok... I think I get it... [Well, he gets 3x5 and 5x5. It might get harder when it gets higher.]

[draculabackwards]

So you can try that example for lots of multiplication and you might have an easier time of it.

Now then. I do believe you enjoy ice cream.

[seasonsofdeath]

[ooooh yes this is good. Akira immediately perks up.]

Is there ice cream?

[draculabackwards]

There certainly can be. It is a festival, after all. What is your favorite flavor?

[seasonsofdeath]

Um... I guess chocolate. [It depends on what they have.]

[draculabackwards]

Then we'll need to go find you some chocolate ice cream to reward your hard work at math. Do you like sprinkles as well?

[seasonsofdeath]

Yes! [Rainbow sprinkles are the best. Even though they don't taste any different from chocolate ones.] What kind of ice cream do you like?

[draculabackwards]

I like black raspberry with chocolate chunks. Hopefully we'll both be lucky and they'll have exactly what we want.

[seasonsofdeath]

Yours sounds weird. [He is not the most tactful of children. But he will be easily distracted by ICE CREAM.]

[draculabackwards]

It's very good. But I will admit, nothing beats a few sprinkles.

[seasonsofdeath]

[Akira nods- sprinkles make everything better.] Can yours have sprinkles?

[draculabackwards]

It usually doesn't but I suppose it can. Do you want ours to match?

[seasonsofdeath]

No. But sprinkles make ice cream better.