lifeaftr | Pumpkin Fun!

Entry tags:

Pumpkin Fun!

Who: Anyone!
What: Fun pumpkin carving time! (Limit ten customers)
When: October 24th
Where: Outside the Storyteller's temple
Warnings: Pumpkin gore

It had taken a bit to get all the pumpkins from their shack over to the Temple, but Chip has managed somehow. After sending out their invitation over the Stones they got to work...well, mostly messing around, in all honesty. They could start trying to hollow the pumpkins out, but it's much more entertaining to take one of their markers and try to decide what face they're going to carve on their pumpkin.

They can be found sitting cross legged next to their little collection, a hatchet sitting next to them and one of the pumpkins plopped right in their lap. They're concentrating very hard, because this needs to be a really good jack-o-lantern...and for some reason there's some lemons there as well? Maybe don't ask about that.

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[Well, Hero said she'd come, so now she's here! This is the kind of little fun activity she hasn't been able to do for a little bit, so that's cool.]

Hi! [oh maybe she should've introduced herself before - ] I'm Hero!

[The Drifter has considered this entire thing deeply suspicious; they have no idea what monsters or creatures "pumpkins" might be, but the child's assurance that they are little more than a big orange vegetable has them...curious, vaguely. They do not know what Halloween is, either.]

[They blink at the small child when she introduces herself, black eyes set into a blue canvas.]

drifter

[Don't they make quite a pair.]

Nice to meet you!

[She doesn't seem to find their lack of verbal response all that unusual.]

Do you know how to make a jack-o-lantern?

[Another blink. The correlation between pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns is not yet one they've truly grasped.]

no
what is that

It's a pumpkin! You carve a face into it, and then put a candle in at night so it lights up. People do them for Halloween.

You wanna make one?

[That is too many words and concepts they're unfamiliar with. Instead of doing the sensible thing and asking for clarification, the Drifter instead withdraws their sword. It's nothing special, at first - a red handle, inactive.]

[Then they ignite the hard light blade with a faint hum, electric cyan and buzzing energy.]

carve?

[That's probably too big, but that's not liable to stop them.]

Is that a lightsaber

[Hero is also not liable to stop them]

[It's...a blade...made of light...so...while the Drifter does not catch the pop culture reference, they can at least appreciate that it is, factually, correct.]

hard light blade

[Whatever, close enough.]

That's so cool! [oh, right, the matter at hand] Yeah, you can use that!

[The Drifter looks at the pumpkin. They look at their sword. And, because Hero said it was all right, they just kind of...]

[Swish.]

[They take the top off it in one easy strike.]

[Hero makes a short, high-pitched eep! kind of sound.]

That's so cool. [.....oh right.] And then you scoop the guts out.

[...ah. The Drifter glances at their blade and deactivates it accordingly. They don't have any tools to scoop out said guts, and so they simply...sit down to plunge their entire hand into the middle of it and start scraping it out on their own.]

[It's pulpy and webby and the seeds get in the way, but the Drifter has set about in this task, and so they will not stop until it is done.]

what after

Haha, gross!

[Hero sounds pleased by the gross, though.]

Next you carve a face in it! You can draw it with markers first, so you know what you want it to look like. Like, you could cut holes for the eyes and the mouth, or whatever!

[The Drifter glances down - first at their pulp-soaked hand, and then at their sword.]

blade too big

[They're quite certain that they're liable to dismember the pumpkin instead of actually carving intricate shapes into it.]

That's okay! There's other knives around...

[Just let this child hand over her own knife that she had because that's safe!]

Here!

[Does it surprise them that a small child has a knife? Not really. Do they hesitate that the child is so willing to hand over said knife? Slightly, but they still accept it. They regard the round vegetable in front of them dubiously - now that they are tasked with a creative endeavor, it has left them rather lost.]

[They let the blade hum off, and tuck it away beneath their cloak again.]

have marker?

[Chip is confused for a moment before they recognize her voice and wave shyly--they're still high on the excitement of ARTS AND CRAFTS, but meeting new people is still a bit...hard.]

I'm Chip! Um, you can pick whatever one you want, I've got markers and stuff if you wanna plan a face.

Thanks!

[Hero goes to pick out a pumpkin, first.]

Are you gonna make a scary one?

[Chip frowns a little, looking at their pumpkin--the markers are washable, but their attempts at erasing have still left smears all over the rind.]

I dunno...I wanted to, but then I thought of a funny one, but it was too hard, and then I thought maybe a happy one would be better...

What was the funny one?

It was gonna have the eyes pointing weird and its tongue sticking out, but I didn't know how to carve it to look right. It's hard when it's all gotta be one big hole...

Fun times for all?

Prompto didn't have any particular plans, but when he happened to see what was going on one thing went through his mind immediately.

"Hey, is all that stuff edible?"

Because it looked kind of gross, but if it was food he bet Ignis could figure out something with it. They looked like some sort of fruit-like-thing, anyway.

Chip looks up from their current task of disemboweling a pumpkin and blinks a few times, before looking down at the orange goop in their hands.

"Uh...I know you can cook some of this, but I dunno which parts."

He looked down at it suspiciously, squatting down to get a closer look.

Then he picked a small bit of the goo off one of the seeds and stuck it in his mouth. If it was bad he could just spit it out, right? So he could always see if it tasted like food.

It wasn't super good, but it did seem like it was edible. After a moment of thought, he glanced back at them.

"I think we probably could do something with all this stuff! Maybe filler, if nothing else." Which could be just as important, considering they were surviving on islands. "Mind if I take it?"

Chip thinks about that, then looks down at the pile on the ground that they had previously been throwing the goop into.

"Um...do you have a bowl?"

"...Yeah, yeah, I do! We have lots of bowls at home. I can bring them over and scoop all this gunk up."

That was a plan. He headed out to go get whatever he needed to gather up the goop.

[Connor's here, primarily because he also has pumpkins. His are smaller, about the size one can comfortably hold in their hand, and come in a variety of colors. There's twenty of them or so, and Connor's keeping them in a basket - a type of basket that's probably pretty familiar if you've been to Denny.

They're meant to be decorated, rather than carved, but you can carve them if you want. If you'd rather decorate them, Connor's got a couple of brushes and some black paint too.]

You want a pumpkin? [A beat.] They're for decorating, unlike those.

They're so tiny!

[Hero picks one up to turn it over in her hands, apparently delighted.]

You've never seen one before? [His mom used to put them, like. Everywhere during fall.] They just grow like that.

Maybe it's too cold where I'm from.

[spoilers I did not fact-check this even slightly]

So you just paint them instead of carving? I'm not really supposed to use the knife by myself anyway.

[Who even knows what pumpkin carving is? Or what pumpkins are, in the first place. The Hollow Knight isn't especially interested and is mostly just wandering by, when they see all the

...this is the part where there would be distressed bug noises, if the Hollow Knight could make them.

Instead they're just frozen up. Hand slowly reaching for their nail, even though their body language is reading closer to flight than fight.]

[ After last month, the Knight has been even more determined to trail their bigger sibling everywhere they go, and today is no exception. Plus, Chip is doing something interesting with whatever pumpkins are.

Which are...distressingly orange, for a start. But they've been wandering the various islands enough to understand the concept of 'orange isn't bad', so.

They're...pretty sure this is..okay?

They opt to give their sibling a...very cautious pat on the hand instead. Please don't stab anything. ]

[They whirl around to look at their sibling, and they do stop reaching for their nail - honestly, scared to even think of touching it with their sibling so close, not again - but instead gesture at all the pumpkins.

Are you SEEING this shit?]

[ They give the Hollow Knight another reassuring pat on the hand, and then bravely go forth to investigate their new potential foe. If it's infected, then they've already faced it and found themselves tentatively immune; if it's not, then it's fine.

Either way it's not putting their sibling near the upsettingly orange...plants...?...so it'll be fine.

They give it a tentative inspection at swordpoint, gently poking it and rolling it about for any signs of activity. When it doesn't respond, they look back at their sibling and sort of nod.

Look, it's fine! Probably!! ]

[It's absolutely not fine!

The Hollow Knight, not at all convinced of the orange object's innocence, tries to pull their sibling back. Stay away from that. It's dangerous.]

[ They care more about not stressing their sibling out than investigating these strange new plants, so after a moment more of rolling the pumpkin about and petting it to determine its nature (hard and round, mostly), they follow the Hollow Knight's tugging.

They pet soothingly at their sibling's hand in a clumsy attempt to reassure them, practically butting their face against it. See, no signs of infection! They're okay! ]

[They're okay this time, but who knows if they would be if they were around them for longer!

Sorry, Knight, your big sibling isn't having it. The Hollow Knight is pulling them even further away and moving slightly in front of them, almost... protectively.

NOT TODAY MOTH SATAN]

[ Oh. That's...
That's a strange action. It's not something they're really used to.

But...they just let it happen.

Being protected is...it's a nice feeling. ]

[They're keeping their sibling close. Like an embrace, but more focused on purpose than affection.

Don't worry, little sibling.

They'll protect you.]

[Given the silent natures of the siblings, it took a while for Chip to realize they were having something of a moment over by the pumpkin pile. They jump a bit when they realize that the two are standing there, and...upset? About something?]

What's wrong? Is something--

[Chip twists to look everywhere around--except of course, for at the orange gourds.]

[It's hard, considering they're already trying to hold their sibling back, but the Hollow Knight reaches out their hand anyway. Trying to catch Chip to pull them back, further away.

To where it's safer.]

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Pumpkin Fun!

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