The Queen of Lies wiggled her way towards the pumpkins, picking out a small one before trying to break it open. She smashed it and picked it up, giggling in utter delight.

"This one is mine," she hummed, before sticking her hands inside and staring at them.

An idea popped in her head and she giggled almost madly before rushing off again, clapping her hands together in absolute glee. She waved at the two creatures attending the booth, then at the horse, wolf, and humanoid.

"Thank you!", she cried before leaving.

Paint time paint time paint time!!

Exit.

"Hi Comet!" he chirped. "Want me to open your orange, James?" He set his down between his feet and produced his chunk of basalt. It was more of a bludgeoning tool than a cutting tool, to be honest, but he was willing to try, even if it probably wouldn't work all that well. At the very least, he could probably get the top open! Though it would take some strength more than anything.


@james @comet

A stranger approached the booth. It seemed to have a lot of trouble walking under the "apparel" it wore. A costume forged of moss, leaves, lots and lots of mud, and the occasional mushroom was what dressed this dwarfish bipedal stranger. It was a decent enough concept for a costume, but one might easily notice the patches of mottled fur peaking through, mostly around the legs and the back. The tail of this stranger was tucked, and yet it couldn't seem to pause its thumping, so what even was the point? A very rudimentary mask made of a large strip of bark was held to the "stranger"'s face with the assistance of tied leaves and a very awkward-looking paw...ish thing. Only the eyes, darkened by shadows and perhaps many other things, peaked through. Oh, also there were nostril holds. Small ones. It was probably terribly uncomfortable.

"May I have one?" The stranger crooned, in a voice that sounded forcibly high-pitched. It didn't wait for a response -- it snatched one with an eager anticipation as it was asking, seeming antsy to get out of there as fast as possible. It then proceeded to head somewhere uncomfortably far from everyone else. There it sat, seeming to fumble with its position, as if trying to cover the chinks in its pseudo-armor with its posture.

It tried to mimic the motions of another handed creature (Talys), but by the grace of the pumpkin was its coordination off. It was almost as if this suspicious stranger. didn't seem to know how its own "hands" worked. It tried to use a claws to slice around the side instead, which resulted in an unfortunate scar in the pumpkin's wall where one had not been intended to go. There came a muffled phrase along the lines of Crap! or Darn! from the stranger's mouth, at a complete different pitch than its talking voice had been.

At this point, the stranger seemed far too antsy to continue. It got back up, and walked away at the pace of thinly veiled fear. It took the pumpkin along in the crook of its arm, a football carry. Maybe it was just off to make some repairs in its costume?

Think "Speak"

- exit -

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Soft thuds and clicks could be heard as a bear approached the booth, her claws tapping and scraping at the stone floor. She had been leaving a small mud trail behind her for most of her short adventure to Polaris, the mud from Cetus dislodging itself from her fur as it dried. She liked Polaris as a break from the mud and mist, but the clicking of her claws on the stone floor made her wince. She would need to explore the cave further sometime though, so she tried her best to get used to the sound.

Noticing others at the booth Tema waited patiently, offering a small wave to Comet and the others she knew when they looked her way. She frowned slightly at the horse from earlier and was thoroughly confused when she overheard them introduce Comet as their daughter, but Tema opted to mind her own business and looked for an opening to approach the booth's host. Another stranger came up just before she did, dressed in greens, mud and mushrooms. She didn't notice the missing patches, too overstimulated by the growing group of gembounds around her. Tema did find familiarity in their scent however, but it was otherwise too swamped by the mud for her to recognize it as Mahukar's. It was for the best, really; If Tema knew just how many Voidcrawlers had left their home for the festival, she likely wouldn't leave their home again for at least a cycle.

Perhaps the incident with Voidmother had stuck with her more than she cared to admit.

Having just barely heard the explanation for what the booth was doing from nearby, she picked out an orange she liked. It was big enough that she couldn't destroy it by accident with her paws and the stem was thick. "Can I have this one, please?" She asked when there was a break in conversation, holding her chosen prize up by its stem between her teeth to show Meissa. "It's sturdy." She added, complimenting the care that went into growing them. She knew growing healthy plants required plenty of attention and energy.

OOC Notes:

Oh boy, oh boy, this looked like a nice friend! Beast was practically bouncing on his heels when the dark valkhound looked down to him. It liked oranges-- that was a nice thing to know! He liked oranges too!

"Emrys! That's really pretty!" Beast awed nosing his pumpkin forth with a hoof. "It's like... an emerald! Well, you don't really look like an emerald, but you get what I mean."

His dark eyes looked to the "orange" beneath him. "Well, you cut it like--" Meissa spoke, and he paused for a moment-- "what the guy over there said, basically. Use your claws!"

The hybrid tried carving a pumpkin of his own, looking around briefly at how the others did it. He took a sharp hoof, pushed down on the surface and-- oh, he only managed to scrape off a bit of skin. "I'm not very good at it," he admitted sheepishly.

@Emrys sorry for the short post!

James turned to Talys and nodded, nudging his pumpkin over, "Oh- yes please, if you wouldn't mind."

He sat down and folded his wings to watch, eyes wide in interest. He peered at the rock, eyes narrowed.

"Where did you get that?", he asked.

@Talys

Lemonface swooped in and landed on top of a pumpkin, wings flared out for balance as he peered at it curiously. He looked up and watched a gembound smash hers open, and wondered if he could do the same.

"Yo Avi! Ozzie!", he cried out, shaking his tail as he folded his wings, hopping from pumpkin to pumpkin, trying to pick out the best one, "Lookit!"

The vulture's white feathers had finally come in, a pristine white with the tips of his primaries a gorgeous black tipped with yellow, matching the circle on his back. His face had changed color too, from a deep black to a beautiful golden-yellow, matching the golden gem-horns on his head.

He shook himself out and picked one that he could carry, grinning as only he really could, "The guys say we can take some! This one's mine haha!"

Lemon picked up the pumpkin in his talons and hopped with it, having one Hell of a time messing around as he waited for his fellows to join him.

@Avi @Ozzie

He sat down and rolled James's pumpkin over to him, starting to jab it with the rock as concentration etched into his features. He was having some trouble, though, and mostly just making a mess of its top. "My brother gave it to me," he mused. "I had a rock, and he had a rock, and we traded them. Mine was from my big rock, and his was from the volcano. Isn't it cool? There's more of 'em at the volcano, but I like this one 'cause he gave it to me." Talys stabbed the top of the pumpkin again, and then started to rub at the rind with the thickest part of the rock, but he still wasn't making much progress.

Instead, he scratched a wobbly smiley face into the front with his sharp nails, and presented it to James again. "Ta-da! My rock's not very sharp."


@james

Meissa hardly had enough time to cheer Arwen on for claiming a pumpkin and having such a joyous time; the fairy was off like a shot right after. The fox-dragon chirruped a quick "your welcome!" at her disappearing form. The masked stranger got the same treatment, with an added "my fair leafy friend!!!"

Her head bobbed up and down as she looked at Tema's chosen prize, "ohhh, that's a good one! Of course you can have it. Enjoy!" A perfectly big pumpkin for a perfectly large bear—oh, and that little one... ! Perfect for the lemon-faced bird.

Lyn smiled gently as he watched the proceedings, snuffling softly against Meissa's fur before dozing back off. Her tail lashed eagerly, and she practically bounced between the rapidly disappearing pumpkins.

After claiming their pumpkins, Arwen, Madhukar, Tema, and Lemonface have all received Jack-o-Spawn!

Other and new participants that accept Meissa's pumpkin offerings will still also receive this spell.

@Arwen @Madhukar @Tema @Lemonface

Were there plants here? There were plants here!

Avi swooped in, a fully grown gryphon covered in dazzling luminescence, just behind Lemonface. The little bonebound hadn't been here since their child days-- not that she missed being out of Canis much. But there was something special about today! Something real special! The rumors in the air all pointed towards a great festival in the Core, one they practically begged their family to attend. They were all grown now, nothing could harm them there!

With a swoosh of their thick, leathery wings, Avi descended onto the pumpkin patch. Their scythes dug into the soil as they looked around, all four eyes brimming with childish delight. There were so many gourds here! Or "oranges", as the noodly thing up front told them. A whole host of other gembound were here, from a couple bipedal things to a massive, dark shape over the hill ('hey, that gem kinda looks like mine!') and it was easy to get lost in it all. Still, they managed to get around pretty well, and eventually settled on an orange bigger and plumper than the rest.

"Found one!" they buzzed, pulling it out of the soil and rolling it towards the vulture. "Pretty good, innit?" Avi looked around, and noticed how many of the others were carving details into their pumpkins, the insides nice and hollow. They wanted to try that too!

With a bit of shuffling about, the alien balanced themself back and put one slim scythe against the vegetable's surface. They pressed down and-- oop! It went straight through. That worked well for an eye hole. They repeated the process again, and again, and again, and then added a small little "v" at the bottom. "Look! It's me!"

Well, it didn't really look like her much. The cuts were shabbily done and pumpkin juice streamed from the eyes. But eh, what would you expect from someone who had never done this before?

Avi turned to look at their third companion. "Hey Ozzie, which one're you gonna pick?"

@Ozzie :') pure children