It had been a long walk, one made easier with their new tool, a spear that V-Chaos-Two used as a makeshift walking stick. They were big now, 12 feet tall standing straight with long talons and thick hooves, with a mane of quills all the way down their back.

They were not as fearsome as some of their other siblings who leaked ooze or had teeth and claws and thick hides, but that didn't matter. Chaos-Two was strong in other ways. Beautiful in other ways.

And here, they hoped, they'd learn the word that described what resided in their chest. Spoken kindly, they hoped, out of affection for someone, like a child, a sibling, or a partner. Such a word eluded them, but here... here they hoped it would be found.

Chaos-Two stepped into the pumpkin patch, looming over many of the creatures there, their quills set flat against their back. They hoped to come home with something impressive alongside their search for this word. And because Vargas had told them to never travel along, they'd brought a sibling (or a neibling?) with them.

"I wonder if they are sweet," they hummed, mostly to themselves, but inviting their fellow to ponder such a thing as well.

They crouched down and lifted up a pumpkin in their claws, staff set down for the time being. How interesting. It was big and thick, with a rind not easily pierced. When scented, it smelled like a vegetable, not sweet at all. Maybe it was slightly bitter? They kind of wanted to eat it.

@V-Labradorite-One

Aran finally found time to look at some of the other things around, at first the pumpkins hadn't entirely interested him, but he supposed he could take a gander at them anyway (if you could consider that, seeing as he was sightless... haha.... seeing). Still, some said they could be eaten, and Aran was curious to take one back to the Edenfolk to see what they could do with it. Even if it would have to be a small one so he could actually carry it.

Finding a small one through the hoard of pumpkins and other gembound was hard, but eventually the Barasingha was able to find one small enough to fit into his bag along with the other things inside of it. All he had to do now was grab it and bring it back home with him - and figure out exactly how to even get home from whichever cave this was.

"I don't suppose you mind if I take this one?" He questioned to the one running the thing.

At the back of the crowd, there was a little white fox. Just sitting there, listening to everything about the oranges. How they were orange, how they could be cut in strange ways, how they sounded when they thudded against the cold ground.

Festivals weren't really Mayfal's "thing", but Comet was running a booth so they decided to come along as moral support. But Comet wasn't at her booth. Comet was talking to other creatures about oranges.

Mayfal didn't really have a special connection with plants, either. Mayfal could hear them when they were alive and flowing with substance. But when they stopped flowing, they weren't particularly interesting. Still, the creature offering them made the dead plants sound very appealing. She had a high, sweet voice. It sounded like light, the way other seeing creatures described it. Mayfal was enchanted by the sound. They hadn't really heard something like it before.

Slowly, they snuck up from the back to the booth with the light voice. The crowd had thinned a little so they probably wouldn't bump into anyone. Mayfal lifted their nose into the air, sniffing in search of the glorious smell of an orange. They put their head back down in disappointment. This made no sense. Mayfal started to wonder if oranges were even real!

"What's everyone talking about, then." They said it more to themself, but it could have been heard by (and confused) anyone nearby.

Action. Thought. "Speech."

Ozzie followed behind his siblings, trying his best to keep up as they both excitedly ran in front of him to the pumpkin patch. he followed, smiling warmly at them as they excitedly picked out their pumpkins, carving shapes into them and laughing.

he wandered lazily behind, looking at the pumpkins and analyzing their shapes, sizes and colors. they were nice.

he paused as avi asked her question, "uh-" he stammered, looking back to the pumpkins, wandering over and picking out a small white one. "how about this one? small, easy to hold, perfect, right?" he smiled.

he looked to it. he considered adding a face or so, but maybe he'd do that later.

@Avi @Lemonface

Carja landed briefly and picked up a pumpkin, staring at it briefly. She heard yelling, and a very... familiar voice.

Her eyes locked onto the white vulture and she froze. The colors weren't the same, but it'd had yellow markings, the same ones this one had.

Lemonface.

"You."

She stalked forward, pumpkin clutched in her claws, "You stole her! You kidnapped her!"

Carja reared, preparing to freeze the stupid bird to the ground, "I'll find where you hid her and teach your Bone King that no one messes with my family!"

strong language

"Hey! Looks like me-", Lemon commented, pointing at the pumpkin Ozzie held.

A shadow loomed over him, and he slowly looked up, eyes bugging out of his skull as she gripped onto the small pumpkin tighter.

"Um... ma'am I think you got the wrong guy-", he said, and squealed as her mouth filled with steam.

Shit.

"What in the world could that be?!", he squawked, pointing off behind the dragon.

Whether it worked or not didn't matter. All it would do would be to give him an extra split second, but right now that didn't matter. He flung his wings out and took flight, trying to let go of the pumpkin, but it seemed his talons had gotten stuck.

Well, if that dragon tried to eat him then he had a bludgeoning weapon.

"AAAAVI!!", he cried out, a scream turning into a name, "Ozzie!! I swear I didn't kidnap nobody but can we please get going cause this is the worst game of tag-"

Oh. An idea.

@Avi @Ozzie

Comet smiled at Talys, and took one of the oranges from Meissa. Since James was busying himself with Talys, the wolf decided to look around to see if any of her friends were around. The booth seemed a lot more busy, she was able to spot Carja among the chaos, who was hard to miss, because of her sheer size. It seemed an argument was going on to, so she noped out of the central area, carrying her orange by the stem in her mouth. Now that she was at the edge of the crowd, she spotted Mayfal. "Hey Mayfal!" Comet walked over with the orange and plopped it down. "Do you want to try cutting this orange with me?" The fox seemed lonely by themselves, probably because it was very hard to get through such a rowdy crowd being blind. "Oh I'll get one for you too!" Comet pushed her way through the crowd, accepted yet another orange, brought it back, and plopped it down next to her own.

@Mayfal

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

Smiling past the pumpkin stem in her mouth, Tema mumbled a thank you and stepped away to try her paws at carving it. Her claws were rather large and strong, so in theory it wouldn't be much of a struggle.

Looking around at the pumpkins around her for inspiration, Tema frowned at some that had been absolutely destroyed during the carving process. Surely it couldn't be that hard, could it?

Well, she had to try to know!

Setting the pumpkin down on an elevated rock for a better view, Tema put her claws to work towards the image she had in mind.

And... it worked! Sort of. The lines and curves were a little wonky, but you could tell what it was! Kind of.

The bear picked the orange up by the stem again, having not yet cut off the top so she could still carry the thing. Guts spilled from the pumpkin as she walked, leaving a trail of orange goo and seeds behind her on her way back to Cetus.

The drawing? A poorly done rendition of the Voidcrawlers, Kooru included.

OOC Notes:

//Exit Tema, pumpkin in tow

More or less fully grown- now 25 feet of potentially intimidating serpent certainly stood out from the crowd. It almost slunk, however, uncomfortable around so many strangers. "Looks like fruit. Fruit is sweet." It answered. It watched as Chaos-two investigated one of the pumpkins, and then it went to get one for itself.

Carefully, It picked up one of the bigger gourds up by the stem with its teeth, carrying over to where Chaos-two crouched with their pumpkin. It sniffed the pumpkin before turning their to their sibling. "What do we do with it?" It lifted It's head to watch what the other gembound were doing before speaking again "The others seem to be cutting them up. Maybe that's how you eat it?"

@V-Chaos-Two

"They're carving it, Labradorite," Chaos-Two said, ears forward, "Or I think some of them are. I believe some are smashing these for fun."

They stuck their claw into the pumpkin and started to saw at it, face right up to it to see all the details through a haze of green. They managed to make four eyes, a nose, tusks, ears, and horns, and turned it towards Labradorite.

"Look, I made me," they said, smiling widely, their dorky little grin making itself known again.

Their eyes crinkled gently as they smiled down at the pumpkin, pleased with themselves.

"You should carve one too," they said, pointing to the pumpkin they were holding.

@V-Labradorite-One