fandomhighdorms | Magic Reserves, Wenesday Afternoon, The Preserve

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Magic Reserves, Wenesday Afternoon, The Preserve

When people began arriving at the meeting today, they would see that things were a bit different than usual today. For one thing, the snack table has it's usual assortment of warm beverages, but was missing the normal variety of snacks and there were a ~~handwavey~~ number of wooden chests piled off to the side, each one sporting a heavy iron padlock on the front.

"Greetings," Karla said, looking a bit more composed than she had at the last meeting. "We've got a fair bit to do today, so we should probably get started quickly. First, we have a talk from Tara, who was kind enough to volunteer this week," she paused to give Tara a grateful smile, "and then, we have an activity."

Merlin nodded and stepped forward. "Inside these chests is... pie." Oh, it was so spooky and magical sounding. "But, as you see, they're rather firmly locked up. So, the exercise today will be to get the contents of the box--unharmed--using whatever skills you have at your
disposal."

Mmm, pie. "Fresh-baked," Tony added. "And if you get one out, it's all yours."

Karla was really regretting that the three of them hadn't had enough time to bake the pies themselves, but hopefully J,GoB pies would be an acceptable substitute. "So, let's give Tara our attention--and a pie of her own for volunteering--and then we'll see how well your pie-retrieving skills are."

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"I had a stomach ache the next day," Zack laughed, shaking his head. "Too much candy. If I'd known about the holiday, I probably would have just done the door-to-door thing like everyone else. There's always next year, huh?"

"Yup!" Dinah grinned, and said, "So I guess you didn't go to the Samhain feast if you had a tummy ache. I heard that was fun too."

"I called in sick to work, too," Zack replied, sighing. "I was better in time for Fight Club, though."

And then he had to take a moment to kind of scuff his toe against the ground, frowning thoughtfully.

"What's a Samhain?"

Doomed. He was doomed.

Dinah pointed over at Merlin. "It's more his and Tara's holiday. Harvest festival. Everybody got drunk and danced around a bonfire, from what people have said." She grinned at him. "We have a lot of holidays, I know. Do you have any coming up?"

"Ummm..." Zack wrinkled his nose, trying to think of... well... of anything, really. "There's a festival they have in Midgar every December, where ShinRa brings a tree in from out of town, and then lights it up in the park. But that's about all I can think of, really."

Sure, the residents of Gaia were big on celebrating, but they kind of seemed to fail at holidays.

"No presents or anything? That's part of our Christmas holidays, the lit-up-tree. But everyone's supposed to give presents to each other too. Along with carols and foooood." Dinah was always a fan of that. "There's Yule and Hannukah around the same time. They're for all different religions, they just have big winter celebrations at the same time."

Which reminded her-- maybe she should send more winter holiday stuff to Midgar for Reno to give out to little kids, if ShinRa wasn't even around to do the tree thing.

"Christmas?" Zack was attempting to absorb all of these new words, and about the best he was achieving by this point was that he was getting horribly, terribly confused. "No presents, no. Just the one tree and some lights on it so that people can see it. Midgar's kinda dark otherwise. Especially in the wintertime, when the daylight... haze... is kinda shorter."

Midgar was not much for sunlight, no.

"Presents are for birthdays," he pointed out, grinning faintly.

"Yup yup! It's supposed to be Jesus's birthday-- he was alive about two thousand years ago-- so, everyone celebrates it with presents." She grinned. "Hannukah was about, um, resistance? If I remember right. And eight nights of outlasting the Roman guys who sucked. I don't know what Yule's for, maybe just midwinter, that's another Merlin one." Dinah laughed. "And before all those, Thanksgiving at the end of this month. Which is all about the food. And football. And family."

Zack was now completely lost.

"All of this stuff is marked on the calendar, right?"

Because if it wasn't, then he was absolutely not going to remember it all. Ever. Try though he might.

"Yes! Promise," Dinah said, nodding hard. "Kwanzaa and Solstice and New Year's too." She grinned. "We sound like we party through the winter so we don't notice how cold it is, hunh?"

"Kinda, yeah," Zack laughed, scratching his head and putting his other hand on his hip. "You guys celebrate all of that? Really? Are there any days this winter that you won't be celebrating a holiday?"

"Lots of them overlap, or people celebrate Hannukah, but not Christmas, or vice versa, or similar stuff with Solstice and Kwanzaa," Dinah explained. "Once we're past New Year's it's just cooooooold and no fun for ages." She grinned at him. "But that's another couple months away. Fun before then!"

Staring. Staring in awe.

"...But... How do you keep track of them all? I mean, can you celebrate two things at the same time? What if you put up the tree for the wrong holiday, or give presents when you're supposed to be eating, or... Um."

Wow, he needed a nap.

"Something?"

Dinah blinked, then petted his arm. "Nobody would get mad or anything. And... I swear, this is all on the calendars. Don't worry about it 'til it gets closer, hunh?" Maybe telling him all that was a little tiny bit of overload? Maybe?

Yeah, she was going to leave out Veteran's Day and Pearl Harbor Day and the other stuff, while she was at it.

That would probably be a good idea, yes.

"... It was easier not knowing about it all," he chuckled, shaking his head and smiling sheepishly. "They're not really my holidays anyhow. But I'll try to catch on in time for the next one, at least."

"Thanksgiving. I'm going home for it, back to New Gotham. You're welcome to come back and stuff your face too," Dinah said, smiling. "Or I'll bet there's a big feast here. We'll get classes off probably, so it'll be hard to miss."

"Ooooh. When is that going to be? I don't really have a calendar on me, you know?"

Food! Eating? Tempting!

"Three weeks," Dinah said, with a small bounce. "I've invited lotsa people, hopefully you guys will like it, and I know there'll be enough food, because Alfred always goes way, way overboard. Rolls and corn and cranberries and stuffing and last year there was a turducken and salads and gravy and potatoes..."

And if too many people got invited? Helena would have to open up Wayne Manor. Muahahahaha!

Okay, here was where Zack was going to ask yet another silly question.

... Ready for it?

...

"Turducken?"

"A chicken stuffed inside a duck roasted inside a turkey! It's nummmmmmy," Dinah said, grinning wickedly. "At least the way Alfred makes it. And it means there's always, always leftovers."

Zack's eyes went wide at that.

"Wow. I think the only way you could possibly outdo that would be to stick the whole thing inside of a chocobo." A beat. "And I don't think anyone would want to do that. Chocobo are not for eating."

They were cute! They went WARK. No eating.

"Maybe an ostrich?" Dinah speculated. "But no, not a chocobo. I don't think I could ever eat anything a friend of mine turned into once. Way too weird and worrying."

Wait 'til she finds the recipes for stuffed camel on the internet.

"Yeaaaah, that would be kinda awkward," Zack replied, wide-eyed. "You'd have to spend the whole time worrying that you're not eating your friend."

This was why Zack had kind of loosely gone vegetarian since the whole thing with the vampires. Red meat was way too close for comfort, that way.

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Magic Reserves, Wenesday Afternoon, The Preserve

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