songerein | [10] baby... kurisumasu daze 🎄

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[10] baby... kurisumasu daze 🎄

Who: Anyone!
Which: Open mingle log
Where: The Wild Harvest in the Residential District.
What: The holidays are here! This is a place where dreamwalkers can retreat during the month of December (and beyond) for a quiet, festive experience away from the crowds.
Warnings: None?/TBD (Gumdrops are in season.)

The Wild Harvest has been open almost a year now, welcoming patrons from all walks of life with unique dishes every month inspired by both Eastern and Western Earth culture—sometimes beyond. This month, the coming holidays have made the atmosphere homey and warm, simmering with excitement around every corner; and while it is never overwhelming, it is clear to anyone who observes that Christmas is here.

I. Deck the Halls

a.) Along with usual vines of yellow, brightly lit moon-shaped fruit strewn about, there are ornaments with holes in them hung around the restaurant and garden. Some have been decorated by staff; others have small critters taking residence inside for a quick snooze, from young snakes to noodle dragons. Try not to disturb them too much if they're asleep!

Aside from the small critters, the mistletoe gumdrops are also back in season. They are still a menace, and these creatures also fit inside these ornaments: red, white, and pink alike, so be careful! What you might find may not be so harmless.

b.) A small station has been set up for those who wish to decorate their own ornaments to take home or hang in the restaurant. There is a variety of material including paint, flowers, markers, crayons, and glitter along with colorful paper where patrons can draw, write a message, a Christmas wish—anything they want! If they are able to flag down Susato, they can even learn how to fold origami (her specialty is cranes). There is popcorn for making garlands (or for eating), as well as colorful tinsel that can be looped around the Christmas tree or around banisters and door frames to add to the festive atmosphere.

Patrons are also invited to craft their own Christmas star and personalize it however they wish with all the decorations, bells, and whistles.

The staff will do their best to keep the area tidy, but make sure to clean up after yourselves where you can! (Susato would appreciate it...)

» BONUS: Reach for the Stars! Patrons will be encouraged to enter their star in a special contest as part of the Harvest's special quest to find the perfect star. The patron whose star has the most votes will have the honour of placing it atop the Harvest's Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Entries can be submitted with a picture or short description here. Please vote for your favorites with a +1 comment! (Think Flower Fest/King & Queen.)

c.) While the search for the perfect star is ongoing, patrons may notice the top of their Christmas tree remain notably bare throughout the month. Most of the time, this will be true, but take another glimpse during a quiet moment when it isn't too crowded, and you may catch the rare sight of something pink in its place.

Meet the newest cat addition to the Wild Harvest family. She doesn't have a name yet, but she has wings, and evidently is not afraid to use them. She looks pretty comfortable, with her weight tilting the top of the tree as she sleeps. She's not a star, but who's going to be the one to tell her?

Not any of the staff, apparently. Or maybe they just haven't noticed...?

II. The Garden

Maybe you're already tired of Christmas, and you just want a quiet meal away from the holiday buzz. Walk out into the attached garden to enjoy your food and you'll find a variety of things to see aside from what's going into your food. There are certainly enough critters walking and crawling around that one might get the sense they're being watched.

There are signs that say something like: Be Mindful of Snakes.

a.) Rows of crops and various ingredients can be seen growing. Yellows and reds from various peppers and fruits burst into color against a sea of green and call for your attention. Wait long enough and you may see a garden snake or two lurking in the foliage. Some may even be brave enough to come out and greet you, with a few of the bolder ones demanding pets. They're relatively friendly, as long as you're not up to anything mischievous. Otherwise they'll start hissing at you, or get the attention of the staff.

The soothing sound of a small waterfall also fills the air, flowing into a pond nearby. Lotus blossoms float above its surface, glowing faintly after dark; though whether they are from the plant or the lotus koi fish swimming about will not be immediately obvious. The fish and the snakes both can be fed by asking a staff member.

b.) Speaking of feeding—if you're sitting down to enjoy your meal, you may feel the gentle brush of a cat or two against your leg, begging for food. You may also be visited by a spice or garnish noodle dragon, looking to live up to their names and add a little something extra to your meal; or a curious axoturtle that may nip playfully at your long hair, if you have it. Or your hat—if you happen to be huddled up or lying down somewhere on a vacant bench, and have your head low enough.

Or maybe it's your blanket as it trails onto the floor, if you have neither of those. Honestly—

c.) "To those who have left Songerein, but are not forgotten." Between two ponds in the garden is a Remembrance wall. On this wall and amidst the grass and dirt at your feet, you'll notice several star-shaped stepping stones, each one adorned with the name of someone who has left the dream world. This was started by the staff, but in light of the holiday season, they have opened it up for anyone to write the name of someone they wish to honour upon a star, and hang it on the wall with the rest. (You can also etch the name onto the star using dreamotion.)

III. Sing your heart out!

Back inside the restaurant near the bar, a small stage has been set up with speakers and a microphone for the occasional live performance. Karaoke is also welcome, so feel free to take the floor (or bully someone onto it)! Sing whatever song or tune your heart can dream up.

Just be careful not to let the alcohol take you too far. Become too drunk and disorderly and you may find yourself sinking into the shadows and back outside before you know it, with no idea how you got there...... Hmmm. (Did this place have a bouncer the last time you checked?)

[ OOC: This is a mingle log to showcase all the various updates to the Harvest we've implemented over the past year. Feel free to top level, tag around, and/or wild card it up! Happy holidays ♡ ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Impeccably bad timing as always, here comes Ryunosuke wandering out into the garden. It's late, and cold, and he's honestly longing to just go curl up in front of the fireplace or something, but he doesn't want to leave without at least offering to help Susato... Even if he knows she'll probably wave him off, since she finds cleaning soothing ~~weirdo that she is.~~ That wouldn't be very gentlemanly of him.]

Susato-san...? Did you need a hand out here at all--?

[He calls out from the doorway, glancing around the area until he spots her. Huh... What's that she's looking at? Blinking, he shuffles his way over to peer over her shoulder curiously.]

Everything alright...?

[ Ryunosuke is definitely the weirdo for keeping that mess he calls an office back home! She still remembers, too, that time she had to clean his own treehouse--even if he himself does not. Luckily for him, however, The Harvest has been filled with excellent holiday cheer to keep her in a good mood.

Even in light of what she just found. ]

Oh, Naruhodo-san. Thank you so much for your help today. [ It really cannot be overstated, and she knows she speaks on behalf of Kazuma as well. ] Everything is alright, but I've found this pesky white slug hiding in here.

[ Called out, the slug takes to the air. It is tiny and white in color, and there may be a mischievous air to the way it circles about. ]

A slug--??

[It takes flight just as he repeats the word, and he starts back a bit in surprise.]

A... Flying slug, evidently! I don't know why I'm surprised...

[Hardly the strangest thing he's seen here. Also, he was imagining more of a garden variety slug, but it more resembles a little sea slug, if anything...]

...It's rather cute, though. What exactly is so pesky about it?

[A question he definitely won't look back on with a sense of irony in the next few minutes, he's sure.]

A flying slug. [ Susato confirms in a light laugh, largely unfazed by comparison, but she is rather charmed at Ryunosuke's understandable surprise. ] We saw them last year as well around the same time, once the cold settled in. Father liked them, too, at least the white ones like these.

[ She definitely got a vibe of 'can we adopt it' from the grown man, but let's not talk about the red ones.

... ]

They are an annoyance because... [ SIGH ] ...Well. Simply try to take some steps away from me now and you'll understand.

[ The little slug, meanwhile, does a cheerful spin as it cries out, its voice way too small to be heard properly without some concentration: Fuwa, fuwa!! ]

[A flying, talking slug. Although, given he hadn't expected it to speak, he's not listening close enough to catch exactly what it said. But it sounded like...?]

Er... Alright then...

[Susato, he is trusting that this isn't going to cause anything super unpleasant to happen to him, OK?

He moves to take a step or two back away from her.]

[ Before long, Ryunosuke's steps will be met with resistance, as if he's hit a wall. When he turns to check, however, he'll see nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing that should block his path. Just to make sure, Susato will do something similar in the other direction; and once she's met with a similar resistance, she raises her hand not holding the ornament to place it against the invisible "wall."

It's not quite someone's wardrobe, but it still might give a feeling of being trapped in a box of sorts. Haaah. ]

Just as I thought. These little ones are hungry for positive dreamotion energy, and will not release us until they get it.

[Mild alarm seems to take Ryunosuke over at the discovery of the barrier, but he keeps it together as Susato explains. A bark of mildly exasperated laughter follows once she's finished.]

Alright, yes, I can see how this qualifies as 'pesky', then...! [He gives the cheerful little slug thing a scolding glare.] Ugh. Of course you couldn't just ask nicely, could you...?

[He glances back at Susato with a sigh.] What does that entail, exactly? Producing the dreamotion energy it wants, I mean. We... What? Think happy thoughts...?

[ She admires that scolding look on Ryunosuke. She probably gave one a similar look, last year! But the little slug just stares at him with narrowed eyes, like "Really?" It bounces in the air and does another loop around them, with Susato eager to follow with her eyes.

Fluff, fluff! Coo, cute! ]

Well... When it happened to father and I, we hugged. We...

We could try that, if...

[ if it wouldn't be too unpleasant. And yet Susato has been doing her best to kick herself out of that depreciative mindset, the idea of being a burden to him and others. So she doesn't finish the thought. ]

[Ryunosuke's eyes go rather wide at the very word.]

H... Hugged!?

[He's not really in the habit of doling out physical affection of that caliber on a regular basis, and the idea that it might be necessary here shocks him more than a little bit. But then again... She'd already had to kiss him, when he was stuck as a frog. In some ways, this is kind of a step down from that.

Also he realizes she looks kind of nervous about the suggestion, so he tries to at least do her the courtesy of reining in his alarmed reaction, lest she get the wrong idea.]

I... Ahem. Well, yes, alright. If that's what it wants...! And, if, if you're okay with that, that is! I really don't mind at all...

[Look, he's even opening his arms. Does it look like he's trying not to be fidgety about it? Well, yes, yes it does. But that's just how he is, don't worry about it Susato.]

[ Scandalous, isn't it? Susato is a little new to this whole thing, too. She has doled out her fair share of hugs in Reverein by now, however, so the idea isn't so shocking to her. Waiting for that shock to settle in Ryunosuke was, perhaps, a touch embarrassing, but she should have known he would be too kind to let it linger.

Her eyes flicker up in surprise, catching the movement of his arms. She hesitates, but then...

......slowly moves forward. ]

I... don't mind.

[ That's all she can say before she closes the distance and snakes her arms around his waist. She nestles in, his warmth completely different to Kazuma's, yet with a similar, familiar feeling of coming home... ]

[ Ah. Kazuma, though...

Damn. Guilt flickers within her like a weak flame, causing her to open her eyes. When did she even close them...? Yet she catches sight of their gumdrop friend looking contemplative as it watches them, like it's wondering whether this is enough, and she speaks with a touch of annoyance: ]

Do remind me to squish it once we are free, though. [ Is she joking? Probably just an idle threat, something she hopes it overhears, but the gumdrop doesn't seem to care. ]

[Look, it's fine, he's just going to treat this as platonically but sincerely as possible, no fuss no muss. Right? Right.

She's like, half a foot shorter than he is, though. So he's going to kind of envelope her no matter what. He crosses his arms at her back and pulls her into a firm but brief squeeze, trying to put his affection into it without lingering so long that he makes it weirdly intimate.

It might be just a bit clumsy, as a result. Jittery, but full of earnestness, just like the man himself often is.

When he lets go, his hands linger on her shoulders in a gesture of solidarity, and he shoots the gumdrop a Look with eyebrows slightly raised, laughing airily.]

I'd be worried, if I were you. She's quite capable of it.

[Look at them working on their good cop/bad cop routine.]

[Kazuma is walking into the restaurant from the garden after tending to a few restless critters. As he gets close to the bar and kitchen area, he'll notice Susato and Ryunosuke talking together. Couldn't really hear their conversation, but he's sure they won't mind him walking up to them.

And then they hugged.

He stops, a moment of confusion. A hug is a hug, but then remember when Susato had to kiss Ryunosuke. Yes, it was to change him back from a frog, but a kiss is still a kiss. And now they're hugging? What is going on?]

[And now it's going to start feeling a little uncomfortably warm around the area. Ryunosuke knows, he wouldn't just--do these things knowing his best friend was dating Susato. Right? And yet here is Kazuma, looking visibly annoyed and one can definitely feel it. He clears his throat to get their attention.]

Am I interrupting something? [Kazuma is giving them the signature arm's cross and judgmental stare.]

[ Kazuma's warmth is felt well before he speaks. The timing is such that the hug just about falls apart naturally--until Kazuma's voice is heard. In the last moment, Susato feels a fire being lit beneath her feet, and while she probably only meant to shove Ryunosuke lightly (to put some distance between them), her muscle memory kicks in for what feels like the first time in over a year.

It hasn't actually been that long, but nevertheless, she finds herself lifting Ryunosuke in a panic, tossing him straight towards the invisible wall behind him, and also onto the floor.

She then turns in a smooth motion towards Kazuma, like she hadn't just done that at all. ]

Kazuma!

Edited 2022-12-17 00:36 (UTC)

[ Oh, he's not happy. ]

[ ...

......Oh. Ryunosuke is on the floor. Why is he on the floor?

Wait, no, she knows why. Should she apologize? ]

[ Maybe later. ]

...That was...I was cleaning, and I--

[ The white little slug doesn't wait for introductions, and simply buzzes annoyingly, doing a loop around Susato as it makes itself known and situates itself in the center of everything. If it had arms, it would fold them, but either way, its disappointment somehow radiates through the air.

Really, girl? You had one job. ]

Ka--!?!?

[He barely even gets to turn his head in Kazuma's direction before he instead winds up watching the world get turned upside down, in a very familiar way.

He screams, as a matter of course. But it stops as he hits the invisible wall first, then sort of slides down it, and finally lands sprawled out on the ground.

Unsurprisingly, he is quite literally stunned by this experience. TOO stunned to really say anything for the next moment or two, for certain; but, you two have fun sorting this out between yourselves! :')

He'll just... Lay here... Groaning...]

[Wow. Whatever he was about to say or was feeling, gone when Ryunosuke is suddenly a victim to the Susato takedown. Next thing there was a familiar little slug, floating around the three of them.]

. . . [He is certainly stunned into silence, trying to process everything that had just happened. The hug felt like it occurred a long time ago.] It's...it's fine. I see what the problem is now.

[Giving Ryunosuke an apologetic look.] Are you all right?

S, Sorry...

[ There it is. With Kazuma's "demons" tapering off, Susato also turns immediately to address Ryunosuke. It looks like she might want to say something else as she offers him a hand to help him off the floor. Some justification, perhaps, but in the end, she has none worth offering.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see the annoyed slug, and looks pointedly at it. She adds flatly: ]

Not you.

I. I'm fine. It's fine--

[He's trying to reassure them both, but he is also still kind of... Groaning? while he says it? He takes Susato's hand and gets back on his feet, at which point he remains sort of stooped over, with one hand rubbing gingerly at his lower back. He's also looking at the slug now, and continuing to give it the stinkeye. Its esteem in his eyes sure does just keep plummeting...]

Rrgh... I thought it was supposed to lower the barrier once we did what it wanted!

[That Susato Takedown wouldn't have been anywhere NEAR as bad if there hadn't been an invisible wall in his way!]

[The barrier isn't down...? He looks around, walking a few paces away from them, his shoe eventually bumping into this invisible barrier.]

It appears I've been forced into this creature's whim as well. [One could almost hear the annoyed sigh in his words. He moves back over to the two of them, glaring down at the slug.] Were the two of you just hugging?

[ Scary...! Particularly the glare from Kazuma. Sorry, Ryu, the slug doesn't seem fazed by his righteous indignation. Clearly this marks the need for even more cute, fluffy feelings. The creature flies up and makes sure to stay out of their reach, while its words start to sound like nothing at all.

Susato watches it, lamenting her own lack of wings. ]

Yes, just hugging. [ Was he expecting anything else!? ] As I was just telling him, that was how we escaped its clutches last year, father and I.

But apparently this one is... [ be nice Susato be nice don't curse ] pickier.

[On the one hand, it's maybe a bit cowardly of him to let Susato do all the work with explaining things to Kazuma. On the other hand... He really doesn't want to make things more awkward by needlessly interjecting? So. Once he's done massaging his poor back he's just going to straighten up and stand there, at attention, with his hands clasped behind his back. Kazuma will get an apologetic grimace if he does happen to catch Ryunosuke's eye. C'mon buddy... He would NEVER... Where's the trust!!

Anyway, there's an obvious solution here, to his mind.]

Right... Well! I'll just, uh--

[He turns on his heel so he's facing away from the both of them. Staring out over the garden, bouncing anxiously on the balls of his feet.]

I'll try to project my thoughts elsewhere and you two... Just, pretend I'm not even here!

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