The beach, Saturday evening

[betterthanaplan]

It took a little bit of hunting -- it wasn't exactly yule goat season anymore -- but he'd managed to get himself a reasonably large straw goat to stand in for Krampus. The thing was about four feet tall, decorated in jaunty ribbon. Duke had put a set of googly eyes and plastic vampire teeth on it to give it a properly evil look.

Mike had come through with the pole to hang the thing from, and as Duke said, he had plenty of rope on the Rouge. Bonfires on the beach were a regular enough thing that it hadn't been hard to set up the pyre either. Octavia had provided a nice, wide variety of knives to stab with, and there was plenty of booze and snacks to go around.

Come one, come all, Fandom. It was time for some symbolic revenge!

[open!]

Comments

Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

Grab yourself a beer or basic cocktail, load up on something salty or sweet, wonder at the thought process that had led to "Let's burn the Krampus in effigy".

As you do.

[booze and snacks moddable, natch!]

Re: Mingle and hang

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't have to wonder. That meant she could just get herself a beer, and look at the straw goat with an expression of faint grim satisfaction at its impending doom.

She wasn't wearing anything resembling full war paint, but she was still wearing a little bit of something black smudged around her eyes all the same. Another small, symbolic gesture.

Re: Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

"Ai badas gona." Duke moved to loop his arm around her waist. "Yuj en meizen. This is . . . exactly what I needed."

He was going to be mad at himself when he didn't immediately feel totally better -- but this was still going to help.

Re: Mingle and hang

[okteiviakom]

Well, that was definitely one way to make Octavia's grim look melt into something warmer and much more smile-like.

"Good," she said, nodding as she leaned against his side. "Den ai ste shanen."

She didn't expect it to be a miracle cure, but it would be something.

Re: Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

“Good,” Duke said in return, mimicking her tone and cadence. He rubbed his hand up and down her side, eyes drifting from the goat out to sea, as they usually did when he was by the water.

It occurred to him to be glad the Krampus hadn’t gone for an underwater cave or something instead of the caldera. That would have really sucked.

Re: Mingle and hang

[died8yearsago]

It wasn't really that much of a leap in logic, really, all things considered.

Thanks to various Drunk and Bored Club evenings, Anna Pavlova had gained a bit of a taste for Saturday evening walks, and Rosa was willing to oblige the dog, especially since not obliging the dog usually lead to dealing with a spastic forever-puppy all night. And a lot of the times, it was pretty quiet, so she really wasn't expecting to come across anything that night, but she was never really surprised to come across something, either.

She was, however, honestly a little surprised that there hadn't been more of things like this after weeks like this last one, now that she thought about it, and figured it might actually be worth sticking around for something like this, despite various parties (okay, no, one party) involved.

Re: Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

“Not here to shut us down, are you, Detective?”

He didn’t actually think she was, no. Unless it was just to ruin his fun, specifically.

Re: Mingle and hang

[died8yearsago]

Another thing that didn't surprise her: that of course it wasn't more than two seconds in and Crocker was already on about the cop stuff. She was almost regretting that the little murmured command to Anna to stay put and behave was so effective right now.

So, after a moment of regretting nearly everything in her life that had lead her to this exact moment instead of anywhere else in the world, she lifted a brow and said, "I shouldn't have to, so long as you've got all the proper permits in order," so dryly you'd think it was a desert.

Re: Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

“True,” Duke said, offering absolutely nothing about the state of any permits he did or did not have.

(He had no permits. People here did beach bonfires all the time. He basically assumed Fandom ran on permit-less anarchy where these things were concerned.)

“Want a beer?”

Tonight was about revenge on Krampus, not taunting the cops, after all.

Re: Mingle and hang

[okteiviakom]

Even with a background fully devoid of any pets of any kind, Octavia was still exactly the kind of person to acknowledge the presence of a dog before the person at the other end of the leash.

Well, this adorable dog, anyway. "Hey, Arlo 2," she said, already crouching to offer a hand.

She also hadn't yet heard of the name change.

Re: Mingle and hang

[died8yearsago]

Rosa wouldn't have expected her to, and she also couldn't blame anyone for preferring to deal with animals over people, either, considering that most people sucked.

A lot of animals sucked, too, but they generally had a better track record.

In seeing Octavia's approach, Anna got up from where she'd been sitting obediently at Rosa's feet, eagerly watching eeevveerryythhiiinng, but, before going to meet the other person, she paused, and looked up expectantly.

"Prodolzhat," Rosa said, looking back with a small nod, and, with that allowance, Anna now eagerly bounced forward to say hello. To Octavia's hand. With her tongue.

"It's actually Anna Pavlova now," Rosa added, a mild correction. The dog still answered to both, of course, but she behaved better when she was Anna.

God, what a weirdo.

Re: Mingle and hang

[okteiviakom]

"Anna Pavlova, huh?" Octavia repeated, with a tiny snort and a very vague, very faint smile at the eagerness with which the dog licked her hand. She also wondered whether her boots were going to be safe tonight.

She gave Anna Pavlova a good few scritches with her other hand before finally looking up. (Without stopping what she was doing, of course.) "Hey, Rosa."

Re: Mingle and hang

[thatwaslucky]

Considering most of Rey's time lately was spent hunched over books, sometimes she just needed to get out and not do that. And honestly, this scene really wasn't a surprise.

Re: Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

“Rey!” Duke greeted. “Come join us! We’re burning the creepy goat man in effigy.”

Re: Mingle and hang

[thatwaslucky]

"Time for some catharsis, hmm?" she said, coming over.

Re: Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

“That’s the plan,” Duke said. “Octavia demanded a chance to stab it, so I figure everyone gets their licks in, and then we string it up over the fire.”

Re: Mingle and hang

[okteiviakom]

Octavia came over eventually. She couldn't exactly spend all evening just eyeing the the goat like she was calmly thinking violent thoughts at it, after all.

Besides, she hadn't exactly checked in with Rey since the whole rescue mission, so... Here she was. "Hey, Rey," she said, her voice on the particularly raspy side tonight. "Gonna take a swing at the goat?"

It didn't seem like Rey's thing, but you never knew.

Re: Mingle and hang

[thatwaslucky]

"No, I think I'll leave that to the rest of you," Rey told her with a little smile. "I'm just here for support."

Re: Mingle and hang

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden hadn't seen Krampus.

"Is that what it looked like?" she asked, then tog a swig from her beer bottle.

Re: Mingle and hang

[betterthanaplan]

“If it looks like a goat made of straw, then yes. Yes it is.”

Re: Mingle and hang

[1000yearstoolate]

"I'm glad I managed to avoid it," Seivarden said. "And good to see you survived."

She raised her bottle in a toast.

Stab the goat!

[betterthanaplan]

Or smack it with a stick or otherwise let your rage out on it! Just don't dismantle it completely, there's still more that needs to be done to it.

Re: Stab the goat!

[okteiviakom]

There was an assortment of Octavia's knives laid out by the goat for anyone to use as they wished. But it was late in the evening when Octavia herself finally made her way over, and picked one up.

She didn't take too long with it. A single rough stab through the chest, and then another slash across the front of the goat's neck, cutting several straws in the surface layer but nothing that would jeopardize the hanging aspect of this ritual.

This was, after all, for Duke and not for her.

(But it was a little bit for her, too.)

String it up and watch it burn!

[betterthanaplan]

Duke's claiming the actual stringing up for himself -- this was kind of his idea, after all -- but he's open for suggestions as to how to do so as awkwardly and uncomfortably-if-it-wasn't-made-of-straw as possible.

And then it's time to light the pyre and let the sucker burn.

OOC

[betterthanaplan]

If England can burn a Guy in effigy annually for more than 400 years, Fandom can burn one goat.