Celebrating Summer
I tried writing this in actual prose story format, but it kept getting too clunky and I hated it so we're doing it headcanon style today
Muriel, Laurene & Family have a Summer Solstice Party. (The solstice was this past Friday, by the way!)
Feat. My apprentice Laurene and my apprentice Marcel (Julian's spouse, they do fire magic and play the mandolin), and Philomena (Laurene's mountain lion familiar)
This would make a bit more sense if I ever actually properly introduces Marcel oops
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-Laurene, Muriel & kids have a Midsummer get together at the hut
- Muriel is anxious at first about having so many people over, but is convinced after some compromise that it'll all be outdoors, so no one will be inside the hut, and it'll only be family
- Family being Portia and Nadia, Asra, Julian and Marcel, and their kids (it's still a lot but they can justify it)
- Occasionally when the party gets too much, Muriel will sneak off inside and have a few quiet moments with himself. Laurene checks on him to make sure he's doing okay.
- They build a bonfire and string flower braids between the trees and around the hut
- The kids make salt dough sun ornaments with sigils that they hang from the branches of trees (and then Muriel re-hangs them because they were all on the really low branches clustered in like one corner).
- At night there's lanterns in the trees, lit with magic rainbow fires and smoky incense that Nadia got special for the party
- Everything is super colorful and brightly decorated!
- Inanna and Philomena have new matching bandanas/neckerchiefs that Laurene embroidered with sigils that glow in the dark. They wear them super proudly, and Pepi gets one too when she arrives.
- If the kids are littler, they can ride on the wolf's and/or cougar's back around the yard
- If they're older they play pirates and magicians, running around the yard with wooden toy swords and sticks for wands
- You know for a fact that Julian joins in, pretending to die a really dramatic death that the kids think is hilarious.
- Lots of yummy food foraged from the forest
- Berries in syrup with sweet meringue made with fresh eggs from the chickens
- Sun tea brewed fresh in the summer sun
- Late spring wild vegetables and mushrooms
- Fresh bread baked in the hearth in the hut (it's not Selasi's pumpkin bread but it's still delicious!)
- Potluck - everyone brings a dish to share, too!
- Asra does tarot readings of the coming season and what it'll bring for everyone
- Marcel and Asra do magic tricks with fire, juggling balls of rainbow flames and tossing them back and forth to each other over the kids' heads (at first, before Muriel makes the kids scoot back bc he's nervous)
- They ceremoniously light the bonfire with lots of sparks and pizzazz
- Everyone tells stories around the fire, Nadia about what life in Prakra was like, and Julian about his pirate adventures (some being tall tales, some not).
- "Did I ever tell you kids about how I lost my eye? Well of course that's why I wear the eyepatch!"
- Portia tells ghost stories once the younger kids fall asleep or leave to go play.
- Julian breaks out the vielle, and Marcel and Laurene join in with their mandolin and dulcimer, and everyone sings and dances to the music. Even Muriel, after some convincing from one of his kids.
- "Come on Papa, dance with me! You have to dance! Please?" They have to stand on his feet so they can reach. Laurene almost cries because it's so cute.
- Someone dances with Inanna, too, holding up her front paws.
- (One of the kids dances with a chicken too, probably, just holding it straight out in front of them like they're slow dancing. The chicken doesn't react because it's very confused.)
- The kids fall asleep all curled up with the animals, way past their bed time.
- All the kids get put to bed together in one big pile in Muriel and Laurene's bed.
- Laurene and Muriel pull out blankets so everyone can sleep outside and stargaze once the sun finally sets
- Everyone is wrapped up snug, looking at the stars with the people they love until they drift asleep. Everything is good.
