[ OPEN ] turkey-time and all that follows.

[falcony]

Who: open to all. (see note(s) below!)
What: it's the time of year and with all these new faces as well as with everything going on, sam thinks it's time for another all summoned not!thanksgiving
Where: sam's horizon
When: end of November/beginning of December
Warnings: will update as necessary.

THE SETUP

As per Sam's invitation, come dinner time, his horizon is going to be full fall aesthetic. The trees will have changed, there will be a slight chill in the air (no matter how it's usually hotter than this in Louisiana in November), and everything will be decorated in prime Fall Decorations - so many pumpkins, so many candles, so much Hallmark Card Thanksgiving, minus any weird pilgrim/puritan bs. Inside the house will be a kind of organized chaos - tables and ingredients and food everywhere. Because while Sam could magic the whole meal together, he's much more about putting in the work, so this not!thanksgiving is old school. If you show up early, you will be assigned a job, and Sam can tell if you cheat and just Horizon something together.

Outside in the front lawn area is a large, long dining room table. Come dinner, it will be a picture-perfect image of a Thanksgiving Meal. Everything you could want and then more will be set out, and there will be a setting for everyone, no matter how many people show up. There's no seating arrangement, so find a place and take a seat, chat it up with whoever is to your right, left, or sitting across from you. The only magic that Sam is going to allow at this point is the fact that the table will always be the perfect size - whether that is smaller or larger. There is plenty of booze, plenty of food, and more than enough desserts, and Sam is really just looking for a casual, nice time of it.

Afterwards, there will be plenty of opportunities for more people to help - just imagine the dishes, y'all. But even then Sam will be playing host, making sure everyone has what they need, even if what they need is an Adirondack chair by a fire pit and a blanket to pass the hell out. Either way, his entire Horizon is open, save for the one room upstairs that is always locked.

OOC INFO

- this is a totally open post! I've got a TL below for various scenarios you can find Sam, but otherwise have fun, meet some people, put up a TL of your own!

- Sam's only Rule is there will be no fighting. You want to duke it out? Take it somewhere else. There will not be warnings or second chances. Don't be an ass. This is his home, respect it, or he'll have your ass thrown out. He's not afraid of squaring up, but you will not be invited back if you chaos too many issues. :)

- this is open to any and all Summoned, no matter loyalties or factions. Sam is going to be going overboard to be welcoming, especially to new faces. Even if your character didn't see the big invitation, feel free to have them invited by word of mouth.

- any questions? message me at disarmingly

Comments

afterward

[nadine_he_loves]

[It's funny how the first time she'd attended one of these, Nadine knew hardly anyone. Now there are all sorts of faces she recognizes. Including this one.]

Hey.

[She joins Steve by the fire, dressed for the occasion in a brown turtleneck sweater and jeans. A far cry from her usual bustled skirts and waistcoats. These get togethers always feel both comforting and a little odd at the same time. It's just strange, to bounce between two worlds like this. The 'normal' of before and the reality of now.]

[assembles]

[ It's been a while since Steve and Nadine have had a quiet moment together. He's lent his aid with some manual labor related to her business, but she's got a lot going on, meaning there wasn't always a good time to just take a rest and talk. This is the perfect time, though, and so he sits up in his seat to greet her with a nod.

She's wearing something far more casual, far more modern, but that tracks. The Horizon is nice for allowing them to slip into some more familiar fits, even if Steve has other qualms with it. He hasn't been able to deny the convenience it offers. Spending time with someone like Wanda in such a mundane setting wouldn't normally be possible without it. ]

Nadine. Hey. How'd you like it?

[ If he'd guess, she probably hasn't been able to celebrate Thanksgiving in a while, based on what she'd told him about the state of her world. He can only hope this had been a comfort, rather than opening some old wound. ]

[nadine_he_loves]

It was nice.

[Not that Thanksgiving had ever been much of a big deal for her, not since childhood. Even growing up in New England. Not having any family or friends sort of made it a pointless exercise for her. But this had been nice.]

I've never actually done a big Thanksgiving dinner like this. The closest I came was as a kid. But I don't think donated turkey in the dining hall of the children's home counts.

[It sounded a lot more Dickensian than it actually had been. But it didn't stir fond memories, and certainly hadn't been a warm gathering of friends.]

[assembles]

[ Steve's childhood Thanksgiving celebrations had been rather humble as well, though not quite to that degree. A children's home? He frowns at the mention, realizing that Nadine's life had maybe been complicated even before the world gave in on itself. ]

I had a few small celebrations as a kid, and after my mom passed my best friend would invite me over. Then the war came and things got complicated after that.

[ To say nothing of him going into the ice and waking up in the future. That's a lot to explain to someone in the midst of a casual conversation. He shoots a glance back toward the house. ]

It means a lot to Sam. He grew up with some pretty ingrained traditions and I think it's important for him to keep to them, even here.

[ Which is good. It's nice for all of them to get together like this from time to time. ]

[nadine_he_loves]

Yeah, he hosted something kind of like this when we are all pretty new to this world. It was...over a year ago, now. For the Fourth.

[Considering Steve is also from America, she doesn't think she needs to specify anything further. It had been nice then, too. She'd hardly known anyone, but the atmosphere had been familiar and welcome.

That's when she'd met Geralt properly.]

It's nice. There's a lot about home I don't miss, but...the familiar's still comforting. Hell, we can make our part of the Horizon into anything we want, and I made a town square straight out of New England. I decorate it for holidays and everything. It just...helps, somehow.

[assembles]

[ Yes, Steve knows the Fourth. It's also his birthday, but there's no reason to mention that. Not that Nadine would get the coincidence that makes it a point of teasing among all of his friends.

A warm smile touches his lips as Nadine explains about her Horizon. While it's true that they can make their domains whatever they want, it doesn't surprise him that most people go for slices of home. ]

New England, huh? So that's where you're from? I'm from Brooklyn myself.

[ But she said "town," so he's figuring it must have a much smaller population. Her real home, that is. He leans forward, holding his hands up to the fire for a moment. ]

It sounds nice. I'll have to come visit sometime.

[nadine_he_loves]

Yeah, New Hampshire. I moved around the state a lot when I was a kid, but I ended up settling in a little town called Barnstead. It was one of those wealthy little coastal places, I was a teacher at a private elementary school there.

[For pretty much her entire adult life. It had been fine. A cute town, and the job paid well. The parents...well, there were drawbacks to teaching rich kids.]

I did visit New York once, though. It was with the school, we took the kids for a day trip to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show. And visit that fancy toy store.

[It's always nice to be able to talk with other people from the States. Sometimes it's hard to have a conversation when each party has to stop to explain things all the time.]

And you're welcome to visit my little square any time you want. It's pretty idealized...real Norman Rockwell, but I like it.

[assembles]

[ Barnstead isn't a name Steve recognizes, but that also doesn't surprise him. It sounds like it's a small enough town that anyone who doesn't live there or close to it probably isn't going to have heard of it. It sounds quaint, though. Idyllic, even, though a city kid like him can hardly imagine living somewhere so small.

His face does light up as soon as Nadine mentions her trip to New York, though. He can't help but idealize his own home city, especially when he has so much nostalgia wrapped up in it — of what it was like at a different time. ]

FAO Schwarz? [ He has memories of when that location moved to Fifth Avenue, and as for the Music Hall... ] Yeah, I remember when the Music Hall opened. They played King Kong there.

[ This is probably going to be enough to alarm Nadine, given that he's talking about something that happened in the 1930s. Granted, he could just be from the past, but it's a little more complicated than that. Figuring that she might ask, he adds: ]

I was born in 1918, but took a pretty long nap starting in the '40s. Was on ice for about... seventy years.

[ Hence, a seemingly modern man who nonetheless grew up in a different time entirely. ]

[nadine_he_loves]

Wow.

[Nadine isn't exactly shocked, she's heard all sorts of impossible sounding stories from other Summoned. But still. She can't imagine that. The difference between the 40s and the early 2000s...talk about a culture shock. Maybe worse than the adjustment to here. Everything's strange and new here. Jumping, essentially, into the future would mean all the strange and new was in trappings of the familiar.]

Yeah, that's a long time to miss. I was born in 1983, and I came here from 2020.

[She's not about to ask for any more details - though his story raises a lot of questions.]

You've had a whole lot of adjusting to do, huh?

[assembles]

[ It's unexpected that Nadine doesn't get caught up on the how of that, but Steve also imagines she's heard all sorts of strange tales from the other Summoned. This might not even make the top five weirdest things list.

1983. She's about Natasha's age, then. That checks out, and he gives a quick nod at her question. ]

It was a lot at first, but it was 2023 last I checked, so I've had about ten years to adapt by now.

[ Of course, five of those years they'd been missing half the population and society had changed a lot as a result, but he doesn't want to get in too deep. ]

... And then I came here, where there was more adjusting to do. [ He lets out a small chuckle and a shrug. What can you do? ]

[nadine_he_loves]

Yeah, I'm not sure which would be harder, honestly. Adjusting to a new time or a new world. I guess they both have unique challenges.

[Not that different from adjusting to a new world versus adjusting to the end of the one you know. They have that in common, at least. If in differing ways.

At least adjusting to life in Cadens had been easy enough. In some ways it's more familiar than Thorne had been. ]

But the human mind is really pretty amazing, it can accept a lot as reality and adjust to conditions we'd never imagine. Most of us are proof of that.

[assembles]

You're not wrong.

[ Steve stares at the fire for a few seconds and then locks eyes with Nadine, wondering if he should substantiate that some more. He's already said enough for one conversation, probably. He doesn't want to overwhelm her. ]

We're tenacious and we don't give up, either.

[ Sometimes it's important to focus on the good stuff, when there can also be so much ugliness in the world. In Abraxas and in the places they're from. ]