VALENTINES CHARITY - Feoveuer 14th

[thejoyrider]

♥ THE FESTIVAL OF LOVE ♥

"At the Festival of Love: Shine like thunder
At the Festival of Love: Cry like rain
At the Festival of Love: Hear my calling
At the Festival of Love: Hear my name"

...wait, who prepared this poster? The vibe it gives off is totally wrong... ah, well, it will do! ♥





I. Welcome! ♥

On Feoveuer 14th regulars of DiplomaTea will immediately notice that the place looks different. Fresh flowers, garlands and paper decorations are everywhere, all in lovely shades of pink and red. Heart-shaped confetti is falling from the ceiling, magicked to disappear shortly after touching the floor so it would not make a mess. Quiet music is filling the whole cafe, one of the many masterpieces of Amadeus Mozart and a particual favorite of Marie who picked this particular song to play. Even those who have missed Marie's flyers and announcements about the upcoming event would definitely notice that something joyous is going on inside, why not check it out and join everyone?

If you haven't heard before, the posters will explain everything. Today's event, The Festival of Love celebrates the holiday known as Valentine's Day some Mirrorbound might be familiar with. This is the day to celebrate love in all shapes and forms. Spend a wonderful, romantic evening with your partner... or your friends and family, because these kinds of love are important too! Or get some sweets and eat them all by yourself, because self love is also important! All money collected during today's event will go to aid the refugees and help those who have been affected during last month - celebration of love for your fellow woman, man and everyone else.

a. Preparations ♥

Of course an event this big cannot happen without the help of many. Making and putting up the decorations, enchanting the confetti and music, building the booths, preparing the tables, all of this and much more took almost the whole previous day. Everett will also defintely need part-timers to help tending to the increased number of custoers during the event. If you visited DiplomaTea during that time, you probably couldn't enjoy your drink in peace... or maybe you were roped into helping? Marie gives you a pleading look. Every pair of hands is useful, you know!

II. The Festival of Love ♥

Kissing Booths ♥

Two hastily made but lovingly decorated wooden booths have been placed on DiplomaTea porch. For supporting the cause with a small fee of 100 cunes the person inside will gladly give you a lovely kiss... though you are, of course, welcome to throw an even bigger amount into the donation box! The Mirrorbound staff the booths in shifts so nobody will be forced to sit out the whole event and more volunteers are always welcome... come on, don't you want to support the charitable cause? Marie is quite persuasive, she might find a way to convince you even if it's not something you would have usually agreed to ♥ Or maybe your crush is currently in the booth and this is your big chance? Either way, thank you for your support, good people!

Bake Sale ♥

Are you skilled with the cooking appliances? Would you like these skills to serve a good cause? The tables just next to the main entrance of DiplomaTea have been filled with cakes, pastries and other kinds of sweets donated by Mirrorbound - help yourself to some! You have to pay for it, of course, but all the money collected helps the charitable cause! For those who are not fond of sweet things, savory and spicy snacks are also found on the table.

Did you bring a dish? Would you like to buy something? Or maybe you are just staffing the tables and helping with the bake sale itself? All kinds of help are appreciated! Are you culinarily challenged but refuse to admit it? Thank you for your donation anyway, it is going on sale! Did anyone see the Fae who donated these cupcakes? These appear to be enchanted and eating one will cause you to say the opposite what you mean for fifteen minutes. What do you mean, Marie, we are putting these on sale as well? Could it be... that Fae was... No, impossible!

Auction ♥

Want to support the cause with a bigger sum? As a part of the main event, a couple of items will be auctioned. To show their support, the Coven donated several valuables that could definitely be of use for both Witches and Monsters:

• an ornate golden ring Fae-blessed to provide the wearer 12 hours of invisibility (which does not have to be used consecutively, it's 'turned on and off' by rubbing the stone set into it, and does not conceal the wearer from other Fae)
• a suit set and a dress that will both transform magically to fit whatever Monster form the wearer has (and will also take on the wearer's color and design preferences)
• a book on imbuing baked goods with minor luck spells - good and bad both.

Place your bids now! But that's not everything that will be put on sale today - donations from Mirrorbound are also accepted and will be auctioned! Do you have any items you no longer need and could contribute? Maybe it's something you have crafted yourself? Or a voucher for any kind of services you can provide? Whatever it is, thank you for your donation! Yes, even if it's enchanted. Especially if it is enchanted!

Not donating or buying anything? You could certainly help with the organization part! That pile of items over there... Mind checking out what we even have there and assign starting bids?

A Word from our Sponsor ♥

DiplomaTea is offering a couple of special offers on this special day, all proceeds will be donated! Extra large mug of cinnamon cocoa you can share with a special person to warm up your bodies and hearts. You can also drink it yourself if you want to, nobody will judge you and certainly not Everett. However, even if you came here by yourself... Are you sure you can finish it by yourself? How about splitting the cocoa with someone who also came alone? That's the spirit of the day! 

For those interested in a drink that can provide more thrill than simple cocoa, Everett is offering a tea blend called Ardric's Warmth. In his own words, it tastes like a live firecracker and has enough caffeine to raise the dead. And yet, this blend seems to have its dedicated fans in Aefenglom, especially among Dragons. Dare to try it? Or maybe someone tricked you into drinking some?

Inkchanted Corner ♥

Caster Cú Chulainn is doing a promotion on behalf of his and Waver's tattoo shop, Inkchanted. Still undecided if you would like to visit their place? Unsure about a permanent tattoo? You can try it out here and help the cause! For a low fee you can have Caster draw a small, enchanted painting on your skin. It can make you give off a charming aura, perfect if you are still looking for someone to spend the evening with or trying to grab the attention of that particular person. Or maybe you are celebrating self love and just want a spell that will allow you to eat a lot of sweets without consequences tonight? Perfect! Another idea? Be sure to communicate it well, you would not want to end up with an enchanted painting that gives a different effect you originally wanted... though even if you do, the magic will only work for a few hours. You can wait that long, can you?

Magic Show ♥

Trucy Wright, one of the recent arrivals to Aefenglom is on stage and about to perform her splendid magic show! Huh, that's nothing special in Aefenglom, you might think. Magic is an everyday thing for every Witch after all. However, this young lady here is not a Witch, so how does she do it? With totally real magic, of course! Get your seats and pay close attention to everything she does, but you are not very likely to notice anything - this girl is a professional, after all. In using real magic, of course! Or maybe you have similar skills? You are welcome to join her on stage and perform your own well-practiced trick. If it's not as well-practiced as you thought... well, at least you made the audience laugh? In need of a charming assistant? Just pick someone more or less willing from the audience!

III. Cleanup ♥

Tired after a busy day? Congratulate yourself on a job well done, we managed to collect a nice sum that will certainly help a lot! But before you can rest in your bed, there's more to be done. Taking off decorations, removing the confetti enchantments, washing the dishes, collecting the trash and cleaning the whole place. We cannot leave Everett alone with this mess after he was so nice to allow the usage of DiplomaTea for today's event, can we? You can stay and help, can you? Maybe there are some leftowers from the bake sale to sweeten the deal?

Comments

[yesdoubt]

[Momo listens attentively, still looking over the weapons. He's more used to larger knives than daggers, but something like that probably wouldn't go astray either if he can't find anything similar to what he's worked with before.]

I'm more used to money than trading, so I dunno if you'd want to deal with me figuring out an equivalent trade, but I thought I might look into it once I get solid work. I like the idea of going out of the city on the expeditions I hear they do, but it'd be good to have a weapon that can cut off infected stuff like that.

[He figures full infections are probably more common out there, but at the same time, it sounds like there's situations it could still be handy in.] It's really impressive that you've got a forge up and running and putting out stuff like this even in months of time, though.

[thisisamazing]

A couple of days helping me out at the Phoenix Tear would be good enough for me. It's my Bonded's clinic, we took a lot of damage last month from the fires. I'm still working on the repairs. [Just so he knows the option is on the table. Money isn't important to Hiccup, never really has been.]

The Wilde is pretty incredible. The parts that aren't- you know. Infected. I haven't been very deep, but I used to live past the Outer City. A little more danger, but... nothing beats the scenery. [Sometimes he still misses it, despite being out on the property most days at the forge, but he doesn't regret moving closer.]

Eh, I was- I was lucky. I came into easy money here, and we're fast builders, where I come from. If you want one of these we can discuss payment later. A small knife doesn't take long to make.

[yesdoubt]

Oh, repair work? I could manage that. [He's no professional, but he's strong and has a lot of endurance for carrying around supplies. Not to mention he's done a hell of a lot of part-time jobs in his life and at least one of them probably involved handyman-type tasks.

He definitely looks rather curious about the Wilde, but he's at least not the type to be so curious that he'd wander out on his own unprepared.] Nature is always a little dangerous along with the beauty, so I guess it's just a more intense version of that...

[But back to the topic at hand.] Anyway, I'd be happy to help you out with repairs if you're really okay with that as trade. I always say my endurance is my only strong point.

[He pokes his tongue out a bit at that as if to make it clear he's not putting himself down completely seriously (even if he has said it completely seriously in the past).]

[thisisamazing]

It's an option! I could use another pair of hands sometime. [Newt tries to help sometimes, but his hands are still healing, and Hiccup wants him to rest as much as possible. He laughs a little at the joke, shaking his head once.] Just for a few things that are awkward to do by myself, nothing crazy. It'd really be enough for me. I'm not- I'm not out here to gouge anybody. The blacksmiths in town are expensive.

Did you have anything in particular in mind? Doesn't have to be a knife if something else is more your style. I'm good at working off of rough sketches.

Oh, I'm- I'm Hiccup, by the way. Hiccup Haddock.

[yesdoubt]

I mean, I've done some pretty crazy things for work before, so I probably wouldn't care even if it was something crazy. [Momo shrugs rather casually, like doing crazy work things is an experience everyone has sometime in their life. Ridiculous part-time jobs build character.

That said, he had kind of forgotten to introduce himself, and waves a hand as if in apology for the oversight.] Oh right, I'm Momo. And a knife is fine, since I'm kinda used to those...and bats, but if I want a bat I can just go buy a wooden one. Though now that I think about it, the last knife I used wasn't exactly as, uh...fine. As that one.

[Momo closes one fist and then uses his other hand to mark out approximately the length down from his elbow to the end of said closed fist. He's used to long knives, in other words.] More like a hunting knife kind of thing. Something smaller would be easier to conceal, but I'm more used to handling something with some weight to it.

[thisisamazing]

I can relate. [Not that they were part-time jobs, but he's been through some pretty bizarre stuff in the last six years of his life. Actually he's done a few weird part-time jobs here in Aefenglom.]

A- a wooden bat? [A slight frown.] Oh- do you- do you mean a cudgel? What is it with people and cudgels today... [Someone is from a time long before baseball's invention and doesn't know why you would play sports with a cudgel. Unless that sport is beating the snot out of someone. That sounds like it could be a Viking sport.

He pulls out paper and a stick of charcoal and jots down a few notes.] Hunting knife, right. No, I get it, this one isn't the biggest- it was just leftover metal from the sword, honestly. I'm not consistent enough to mix batches yet when I-. Is just regular steel okay? I- I have to get into charging money territory if you wanted the synthetic Gronckle iron. It takes a while to make with alchemy, you know?

[yesdoubt]

[It takes Momo a second to remember what a cudgel is, and he tilts his hand a little as if to say it's almost right.] Kinda? A bat's a little more uniform and less...obviously weapon-y. Since we use them to hit balls for sport in my world. Usually, at least.

[Momo and his partner back home may or may not own a metal bat that's exclusively for wielding as a makeshift weapon. As you do. In any case, he's pretty happy to go with the flow when it comes to this sort of thing, and he waves his hands at the question of material as if to say not to worry about it. As far as he's concerned, he's already getting a good deal here, so he's not going to push it.]

Steel is totally fine, I'll come back around for anything fancy when I'm actually making money. For now I just want something I can hit stuff with that's not my fists.

[He doesn't want to get a Cwyld infection in approximately 0.5 seconds of meeting anything infected that he has to fight.]

[thisisamazing]

I never would have guessed something like that would catch on. [No, Hiccup, it's stuff like racing while carrying sheep that would never catch on.

He does up a quick sketch of a longer, more sturdy and less decorative knife, and presents that for inspection. Even from just a rough draft it looks sturdier than the piece on the auction table.] Something like this?

[Hiccup can understand wanting the protection. This is why the first spell he learned was enchanting his blade Inferno to make it work again, so that he could use it against the Cwyld if need be.]

[yesdoubt]

Hey, people get creative when beating each other up for sport gets less socially acceptable. [Momo shrugs, his tone casual as ever, because it's not like beating each other up for sport ever entirely went out of fashion. But people also found some alternate ways to vent that kind of energy.

He leans over to look at the sketch and immediately nods enthusiastically, because it's definitely more what he had in mind. Delicate as he acts on stage at times, he doesn't exactly suit delicate weapons.] Yeah, that's good. Or am I supposed to say it looks a little sketchy?

[He winks cheerfully in an effort to uplift what is, at its heart, a truly terrible pun.]

[thisisamazing]

Good to know beating each other up for sport falls out of fashion eventually. We're still right there back home. [He's traumatized from years of Thawfest Games.

Hiccup stifles a snort, and rolls his eyes a little, but there's something amused in it too. It's the kind of joke Ruff or Tuff might make on a whim, cheesy and not funny enough to be a little bit funny.] Ha.

Were you wanting a heat enchantment? Flames? Something else? I'm good at fire magic, but I can do other things too.

[yesdoubt]

I mean, some people still do it, but it's definitely not the only sport around. And a lot of people think it's not very classy. [Momo flicks his fingers in a delicate gesture, miming someone trying to get something dirty off their hands. Boxing and wrestling tend to get their fair share of judgement.

That aside, Momo curls his hands under his chin in a thoughtful gesture. He could ask for something else, but really, at this point he's not even sure the kinds of things that could be done to a weapon with enchantments.] Fire does sound useful from what I've heard about the Cwyld, but just so we're on the same page, what kinds of other enchantments have you done on weapons before? I'm having trouble thinking of what options there'd be.

[Newbie problems.]