[OPEN LOG] Turkey Testicle Festival Open Mingle!

[marmoron]

Who: Everyone!
When: Post-Thanksgiving Weekend
Where: Bottoms Up Bar and Tavern
Summary: The annual Turkey Testicle Festival returns to a local Gloucester bar with special events including a turkey testicle eating competition, live music, karaoke … and some unexpected spooks and slaughter themed hallucinations
Warnings: Please put appropriate content warnings in your top levels! General warnings include:
For the festival: Alcohol
For the opt-in aftermath: Slaughterhouses, blood, implied animal cruelty, industrialized slaughter, tactile/auditory/visual hallucinations

Welcome to the Annual Turkey Testicle Festival!

It’s that beloved time of the year, folks! All across the United States, several towns host a much lauded festival called the Turkey Testicle Festival and lucky you, Gloucester just so happens to be one of those special towns that pay tribute to the full glory of the humble turkey. Fliers for the event hosted by the Bottoms Up Bar and Tavern can be seen all around town advertising the momentous occasion. See you there!

Dining & Drinking

Bottoms Up serves up classic American bar foods and offers a wide selection of local beers as well as hard liquors for anyone who wants to get their drink on. Just be sure to provide some kind of ID. Or get someone else to get you a drink -- it’s a party, the bartenders won’t ask so long as you don’t get them in direct trouble. But let’s be real, why are you here eating nachos and chicken wings when you could be eating….

The Balls

Ah yes, the crown jewels of the event, who could forget? Breaded and deep fried to golden brown, crispy perfection these balls are just bursting with flavor! Served with your choice of hot sauce for some spice or creamy white sauce, these delectables are said to taste just like chicken nuggets.

Dare to find out.

Or better yet, join the turkey testicle eating contest! Win glorious prizes such as a twenty dollar gift card to Walmart or a CD signed by Sense of Evan. Please, they have so many CDs nobody seems to want…

Live Music

Looks like a local band is playing for part of the festival. For better or for worse, “Sense of Evan” are a cover and playing all the best meme hits from the likes of Evanescence, Avril Lavigne, Nickelback amongst others. Come jam out to the music, make merry with other festival attendees. Or maybe you’ll just be hanging out by the wall wondering how could this happen to me…..

Karaoke

But just because the live band’s done playing, doesn’t mean the music stops. Nope. Bottoms Up staff have dredged up a karaoke machine! Now it’s your turn to show off your singing chops and wow the crowd! Or conversely break a few eardrums. It’s all in good fun, right?

The Aftermath

…Or maybe it wasn’t all just in good fun after all?

For those who attended the festival , they may wake up the next day with some unwanted side effects. It might start out subtle — the odd sound of a conveyor belt moving along, the occasional electric shock by your neck. Weird bodily and auditory sensations that seem to flit in and out from an entirely different place. But as the day progresses, these strange occurrences seem to become stronger, clearer until the hallucinations really kick in.

Visions of yourself trapped in a steel pen, along with so many others all waiting to be pushed onto a conveyor belt. Perhaps you’re sharing the hallucination with others you recognize, perhaps you’re meant to work together to escape the seemingly endless line of slaughter and industrialized death. One way or another, these hallucinations will last a full day before they gradually taper off in intensity.

Notes:

• The after effects are purely opt-in. You do not have to play with any Slaughter themed elements if your character attends the festival.
• For the slaughterhouse hallucinations, feel free to go ham with the set up. Be as horrible to your characters as you like, please just warn with the appropriate content warnings.
• As per the mod’s notes, characters who choose to investigate Bottom’s Up following this incident, they'll find that the grocery store had a mix-up in their meat order and got something that came off of one of Sable's shipments. The grocery store's usual seller came up short and just bought up what they could find on short notice to cover the holiday rush.

Comments

[thatsreallygreat]

Joke's on the thieves: Caduceus doesn't really have anything on him worth stealing. He stays put, though, eyes closed for a little while as he focuses on breathing deep and even and slow.

He peeks his eyes open again when he hears some familiar footfalls and his wan smile reappears when Mercy offers him a glass of water. He sits up more to accept it.

"Thank you." He takes a long drink from that, but keeps that slow, too. Last thing he needs is to shock his stomach into emptying itself. He relaxes again, both hands wrapped around the glass. The question makes him huff a laugh.

"Well, I didn't know turkeys had testicles. And I said I'd be here as moral support for anyone taking the challenge." He looks over at her. "And it's kind of nice to be around so many people having fun."

Without something terrible happening.

[graveyounglady]

Mercy snickers. "'Course birds got them, too. How do you think you get a lot of chicks running around otherwise? Mama and Papa gotta get to work together to make little 'uns. I ain't never met a turkey, but if they're anything like ducks, that just makes sense, don't it?"

She sips her own water as she sits back, sprawling next to him on the bench in an unladylike fashion. "And it's been nice. They didn't taste too bad. Don't taste good enough to get their own thing, either, but folks got different tastes."

[thatsreallygreat]

"I've never taken a turkey apart," he insists, as if that is plenty of reason not to know the inner workings of one. "Or a duck."

Caduceus smiles as Mercy flops next to him. He keeps his arm over the back of the bench, glad to offer some comfort and not at all concerned that this might be unladylike.

"It's an excuse for festivities, right? Even if it's kinda weird. And doesn't taste spectacular." That is one part of the evening that he certainly doesn't regret missing. It's been fun to watch other people trying to the turkey balls and the like, but Caduceus still isn't interested in trying any.

Now if he could just get past this nauseous, feeling, he'll be happy.

[graveyounglady]

"I ain't never taken one of you apart, but that don't mean I don't got a sense for how you get more little Caduceuses," Mercy teases. "You got any of those back home? Or were you too busy fighting and rescuing folk to settle down?"

Because why wouldn't someone want to grow their family? It also occurs to her that she's not entirely sure how old Caduceus is.

[thatsreallygreat]

That makes him snort a laugh. She's got a point there, he supposes. But far be it from him to presume how anything reproduces. His expression shifts - not sad, but maybe a little thoughtful - when Mercy asks about children.

"I don't," he answers. "And you know, I'm not sure I ever will."

Never say never and all of that, but at this age he's starting to think that's just how it's going to be. It's not something he's ever wanted. Not sex, and not romance.

"I was settled down for a long time before the Nein stumbled into my life. I don't think anything'll change when I go back. It's just not really my thing. It's great to watch other people forming those bonds but it's just not for me. I think I'd be a great uncle if any of my siblings have kids."

cw: ignorance-based dismissiveness of asexuality

[graveyounglady]

"You probably just ain't found the right person, yet," Mercy says with a nod. "I could help you with that, if you're keen? Although, I don't suppose we got anyone else like you around here. Oh! Oh... or... Hmm."

She considers Caduceus for a long moment. "Have you ever thought about... boys? Someone was telling me they do that here. You don't got to just be with the opposite. You could be with someone who's the same as you that way."