[Video] w/optional [Action] In Memorandum...

[smallspot]

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a good day!

[Diarmuid waves excitedly at the screen for a moment, before having to move quickly to catch the strange little animal that starts to slide out of his lap.]

Sorry about that, Lir. I guess I waved too hard...

[The creature makes a soft burbling sound and blows a bubble at Diarmuid. The bubble bumps against the boy's nose and breaks causing him to giggle. He then turns his attention back to the terminal.]

Is there anyone here who remembers me talking about wanting to have a ceremony to celebrate all of our friends who have been sent away? I would like to have it next month by the river. There should be food and maybe even some activities, since the point is to have fun remembering our friends instead of being sad. At the end, I want to put candles out on the river floating in boats to send our wishes for our friends to them!

Will you guys help me out? Please? Lets do something nice for all the people who aren't here anymore! You don't need to have lost someone to come or help either. We're all friends here, right?

[Action]

[A few hours after making his request for help, Diarmuid can be found down by the river running up and down it looking for the best spot to have the ceremony--maybe 'festival' would be a better word--at. Lir bobs in the river following along with him the best he can. Every so often, Diarmuid stops and looks around, making gestures and talking to Lir as he tries to picture where everything will go if this is the place he picks.

He certainly won't mind if anyone stops to talk to him about the festival. After all, he's still trying to work everything out...]

Comments

[smallspot]

Yule is what we call it back home, but we don't have any Santas either. That is something I only learned about when I came here.

[He seems to ponder something for a moment before nodding.]

Your holiday sounds closer to mine than the one that we celebrate here. We hang up mistletoe to keep bad spirits away and then we celebrate the dark leaving and the light coming back. Days stop getting shorter and start getting longer again!

[alley_kit]

I like that idea. Celebrating light coming back, I mean.

I dunno what mistletoe is, but sometimes we hang up bunches of herbs and things that smell nice or look pretty and we make fruitbread. It's really tasty and sharing it is supposed to be lucky, especially around Rammastide.

[smallspot]

Mistletoe is a plant! It has green leaves and red berries. We hang it up in bunches just like you hang up the herbs! It doesn't really smell. Like I said, we use it to keep bad spirits away!

[The boy falls thoughtful again as her description of the fruitbread and its purpose reminds him of something.]

That sounds like Barmbrack! It is bread that little items are baked into and the one you get tells your fortune for the coming year! But we do that at Samhain not Yule.

[alley_kit]

Oh, OK. They sound like pickleberries. That's what we always used in our fruitbread cause that was just what was around that time of year.

Fruitbread doesn't have things in it, though. [pause] Well, I mean it has things like fruit and honey and spices in it, but it doesn't have things you can't eat.

[smallspot]

We don't really eat mistletoe in things. It's a medicine! A really pretty medicine!

[That also gets hung up to keep bad spirits away. All in all, a very protective plant.]

That bread sounds really good. I love honey, so if there is honey in it, it has to be good!

[So biased is this one...]

[alley_kit]

Ah, OK. We use some the herbs as medicine too, but some of the others are for cooking. Some can be used for both, depending what part of the plant you use.

[Living on a small farm in the boonies, it was important to know what plants might be helpful... or tasty.]

Yeah honey is the best part! And it balances out the prickleberries, which are really tart on their own.

[smallspot]

[Diarmuid nods.]

Herbs have a lot of different uses. They are really neat!

I think that I want to have my festival around the 25th of next month. Keep that date free, okay? I really want you to come and play your flupe for us!

[alley_kit]

I will! Just call me on this thing again when it's time to get started, OK?

[smallspot]

I will! Make sure you contact me if you have any questions, okay?

[Diarmuid waves at her happily.]

It was good to meet you!

And wrapped, unless you want to reply one more time! :3

[alley_kit]

OK.

It was nice meeting you too!