22 - Harvest Moon Viewing

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Harvest Moon Viewing
When: September 10, 6 PM
Where: The Meeting Hall grounds
Summary: The Heavens are throwing a moon-viewing party!







Party Games

Children are dashing all over the moon-viewing grounds in the early evening, flying kites or playing tag and other games. Many of them are wearing cute seasonal rabbit masks made of paper, or sporting ink curlicues and scribbles drawn over their faces, if they've lost too many games.

Card games and spinning top battles, a few practice archery butts towards the edge of the park, poetry-composing competitions, and even badminton: there's something for everyone, and anyone who doesn't look too busy may find themselves offered a rabbit mask and a game to play. Or perhaps you'd like to try your hand at drawing people into your own game?

Moon Viewing

The moon rises not long after sunset, looming over the garden in hazy golden and red splendor thanks to the volcanic fumes in the atmosphere. The games are winding down as darkness falls, and the faint scent of burning incense fills the air as people settle to view the moon rise. Shinki in their festival best, adorned with Amaterasu's golden chrysanthemum, are serving the guests. They set out trays of fresh seasonal fruit (Japanese pears, persimmons, and chestnuts) and plates of mochi, serve sake, and light portable grills to cook sweet potatoes and skewers of meat.

Mazed & Confused

Part of the grounds have been rearranged into a hedge-maze made of tall, plumed grasses packed close together. A sign at the entrance reads, "Bring back my ribbon from the center of the maze,
and I'll give you a special prize!"

Unfortunately, that's harder than it sounds. The maze is full of dead ends, confusing turns, and twisty little passages, which all look alike. It's almost magical how easy it is to lose your way inside, and the tufted grass will prove to have painfully sharp edges if anyone tries to cheat by pushing their way through the "walls" of the maze.

Those who successfully find their way to the center will find a white ribbon fluttering from the top of a tall pole. If they can climb the pole, pull the ribbon free, and make it back to the entrance, they will hear the sound of a child's laughter, and the ribbon in their hand will disappear to be replaced by a round cake of mochi. Enjoy the prize!

Wild Moon

One of the children participating most energetically in the games of tag and dashing around the party is wearing an oversized gray hoodie with the hood pulled up right to the edges of his happy rabbit mask. He's not being very careful, either: he keeps bumping into other party attendees and barely taking the time to mutter an apology before he sprints away.

Although nothing noticeable happens at the time, anyone who's been tagged or bumped into by that particular child will begin to feel more emotional, quicker to react, and less self-controlled as the night wears on. Those who he only brushed by won't be too powerfully affected, but the more times that he has run into someone, the stronger the effect will grow.

(Note: This won't cause anyone to have emotions that they wouldn't feel otherwise, but both ongoing moods and temporary reactions could be amplified.)

In Summary:

• Play party games
• Relax with snacks
• Try to solve the hedge maze
• Go wild
• Have fun~

Comments

[ittenbari]

You get yakuza running games a lot, so you're not gonna find people playing this is some classy place like a casino.

[He looks over his cards, then the cards on the table. It's not that bad a hand, all things considered.]

So anyway, when it's your turn, you have to try to make a match. If you've got a card in your hand that's the same suit as a card on the table, you can take that card.

[He picks up one of the clover cards from the middle and sets it on his side of the table, pulling a clover card with a red ribbon on it out of his hand and setting it next to it.]

Then you get to turn over a card from the deck. [Which he does.] If you can make a match with it, you get to keep the cards. If not, it stays in the middle.

[And since he can't use it, he leaves it in the middle.]

If you can't make a match with what you've got in your hand, you pick a card and leave it in the middle. You still get to turn a card over from the deck, though, so it's not a total bust.

[hunterofsorts]

Sounds like the kind of place I'd usually be in.

[Casinos aren't his usual place to game after all dive bars are more his speed. So he's eyeing his cards and watching the other so he can learn because how else is he going to?]

And when you say suit that's the flower motif thing, right? Kinda like how my cards have hearts and diamonds..

[He's picking up a peony card and adding it to one in his hand setting them both aside. They're both plain but it's fine. Then he flips that second card from the deck. He hand use it so he's placing it were he'd taking the first one from.]

It'll likely take me a couple hands to get this but I'm game for killing sometime.

[Scoring seems to be the most complicated part.]

[ittenbari]

And I won't throw the last bit of scoring stuff at you for this game. I figure it's confusing enough as it is and we're not betting cash or anything.

[Yeah, there are more rules...]

Basically, there's a way to try to beef up your score that can totally explode in your face.

[hunterofsorts]

There's more scoring rules? No wonder people can cheat at this game with that. Keeping tack of legitimate scoring sets and patterns has to be a hassle.

[Dean doesn't mind he's a-okay with keeping the first few games bare basics so he can get a proper hang of it.]

How so? I mean how does it blow up in your face?

[ittenbari]

Well, you know how most hands increase in value the more cards you add to them? That's where it blows up. You're supposed to call it as soon as you've got a combo of cards that will win a hand. So say you have three blue ribbons and that's it? You gotta call it. Thing is, though, you don't have to stop the hand. You can choose to keep going as many times as you want, but as soon as the other guy gets a winning hand, it's over.

[He mimes an explosion.]

So sometimes you've gotta end a hand and get a grand total of one point if you think the other guy is gonna get something better.

[hunterofsorts]

Yeah.

[Dean nods listening then arching a brow. It sounds kinda like canasta actually. Sometimes there were instances where you could meld out but you'd have a low score. He gets it.]

That is actually something I'm pretty familiar with. I think I get it now. This was pretty cool of you teaching me your game. You're an alright guy.

[ittenbari]

No problem! You're pretty alright yourself!

[Sakon beams.]

Maybe I should start getting a group together to play cards, since I guess I don't totally suck at explaining it.

[hunterofsorts]

[Whoa there, kiddo, you sure are excitable. Then again it's nice. This kid reminds him of Jack kind of.]

Maybe. It might be a good idea. Cards is definitely a good way to meet new people, that's for sure. Do you know other kinds of card games?