Summer Festival
This mini-adventure features Aja, Rem, and @charmycharmcharm's MC, Venetus, at a day at the fair. Also featured: Bad puns, perplexing riddles, carnival games, false wizards, young love, and ice cream.
⚘✾❁❀⚘
A gentle breeze rustles the trees at the entrance to the Summer Carnival, where The University's plaza has been transformed, almost overnight, into festival grounds. Booths spring up like so many flowers among the school's gardens, with towering rides and attractions jutting up into the sky. It is here, with the semester finally concluded, that Aja and Venetus seek refuge from the rigors of their studies.
"We should find the kinetic sculptures. I hear Sunkeeper artists spend years perfecting their construction." Venetus hops up on their tip-toes, spotting telltale lights glimmering in the distance.
"Oh, yeah! Rem wanted to see those too,” Aja says. “I told them to meet us here, hope that's ok."
"Of course," Ven responds, pointedly ignoring the small pang of emotion in their chest. I thought today would just be the two of us, they think, as they drop back down to their heels.
All other thoughts are quickly pushed from their mind, however, as Aja takes their hand in hers to prevent separation in the crowd. She leads them past foodstands and carousels, through a throng of colorfully clad students and visitors from all across Midland. Aromas of festival foods—cakes and pies and sizzling meats—blend with the heady scent of lilacs from the gardens.
At last, the two arrive at the foot of an immense sculpture. Wind catches on delicate curves of wood, metal, and glass, sending the apparatus into mesmerizing motion. Whirling sun-shaped ornaments spin and glimmer, as air whistles through holes expertly hewn in wood, and metal pieces chime together musically.
Colored light shines through glass, creating a cascading rainbow of colors across Ven and Aja's faces. They both stand transfixed for some time, until—
"Hey, look." Aja nudges Ven's shoulder. Attached to the sculpture's base is another machine, with algal blooms encased in enormous canisters, affixed to what appears to be some sort of carnival game.
“Those are algal fuel cells,” Ven whispers. “I've heard of Sunkeepers using algae to power some of their tech, but I've never actually seen any in action."
“Yeah,” Aja says. “They're not as powerful as magic-powered tech, right? But it’s still so interesting…”
The two go off on tangents, and even as they challenge each other with new ideas, the conversation feels familiar, comfortable, lived-in. Aja's gesturing hands, the excitement and enthusiasm in her voice, and the warm intensity in her eyes cause a faint flutter to rise in Venetus' chest.
It is only with considerable effort that they turn their attention back to the details of the conversation.
“There really should be more cross-disciplinary collaboration between our departments,” Aja says. “There are so many things that might be possible with the combined knowledge of our schools.”
“You mean like hybrid magic?” A whispered yet teasing inquiry, from a familiar voice behind them.
“Well, no, not exactly like that,” Aja says bashfully.
“No, not like that,” Venetus agrees, taking in Rem’s ensemble as they emerge from the crowd. They've really gone all out, Ven notes. Any thoughts of forbidden magic are banished as Ven eyes cascading plates of fabric draped across beaded gauze, and Rem's face painted in dazzling geometric patterns.
Never one to be outdone, Venetus removes their own linen caplet with a small flourish, revealing garments of peacock blue embroidered with birds of paradise. It matches their own painted face, as well as the iridescent flowers dangling from their earrings.
Rem's eyebrows arch upward in obvious approval, and Venetus' cheeks grow a tad warmer under multichrome paint. From pride, surely.
Ven clears their throat. “Uhm, let's see what this game is all about, shall we?”
They spin around on their heels to face the algal apparatus.
⚘✾❁❀⚘
“The game is simple enough,” the man running the stand explains, his nearly white hair woven through with Sunkeeper regalia. “Throw one of these,” he nods to a basket of walnuts, "at those screens over there." He gestures to a series of panels, each inscribed with an illustration or symbol.
The panels move along tracks in the machine, gears powered by wind and algal fuel. Some move slowly and predictably, others more quickly and erratically.
"Aim for what you want," the man says. "If a panel spins, you get a prize."
Rem goes first, aiming at a slow panel, and manages to win a small beaded bracelet. Next comes Aja, but her panel moves quickly. She misses, and goes prizeless.
“Ah well,” Aja says. “Can't win them all. Your turn, Ven.”
Ven looks to the screens…
…and throws at the slow-moving donut panel (free food tickets for everyone).
…and throws at the fast-moving dragonfly panel (a stuffed animal prize to give to Aja).
…and throws at the slow-moving doorknob panel (entry for everyone to a spooky ride).