𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐑 !

rivalries are put aside, and camaraderie takes their place. and for the golden deer, pulling neck and neck with the eagles and lions despite having the fewest contestants in the ring is all the reason to celebrate! or so rosado and hortensia thought. at the post-tournament grand banquet, the elusian pair have set up a golden deer corner, complete with yellow and cervid decor and drapery, and both hosts arrayed in house colors and face paint. "three cheers for knoll! three cheers for hilda! three cheers for eliwood!" "fear the deer!" a celebration lifting up the class heroes who'd carried them from underdog into the spotlight, and for all the deer who cleared the way valiantly to let them get there: —hip-hip hooray!

FOOD & DRINK:

—  CUPCAKE DECORATING  ╱  from yellow-sugar icing to pretzel antlers to cookie toppings shaped like deer, there's no shortage of supplies to make your cupcakes look any which way you want.

—  CARAMEL MERINGUES  ╱  a triple layer of chocolate and caramel in glass containers, tied off with a bit of string attached to a spoon. perfect to grab and take with you, or feed to a loved one.

—  DOE POPS  ╱  cake pops shaped like deer heads! and something sticking out of each one. a paper fortune? what does yours say?

—  GOLDEN SPICE CIDER  ╱  a warm and buzzy autumnal drink, perfect for the season and sure to banish any chills. both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties available.

—  CROUCHING CHOCOLATE, HIDDEN STAG  ╱  a culinary minigame? a table is arranged with a terrarium-like miniature woodland display, complete with moss, trees, golden deer flags, and a herd of deer themselves. one item in this display is made of chocolate. how many things are you willing to bite to find which one it is?

ARTS & CRAFTS:

—  THIRTY-POINT CROWN  ╱  craft your own glorious headpiece with paint, twigs, and twine to show off your deer pride! who can boast the most impressive rack? ( of antlers, duh. what were you thinking? )

—  WOOD CARVING  ╱  for the dexterous and crafts-minded, a setup with display and instructions to carve your own wooden deer to take home. organizers are not responsible for injuries.

—  DEERLY BELOVED  ╱  a stack of deer-shaped paper and pens greet you. "write a compliment and stick it onto its recipient!" the instructions say. if you're fast, maybe they won't even know it's you.

—  READY-TO-PAINT CERAMICS  ╱  a station of unfired bowls and plates and small vases invites you to decorate them however you want! several stencils are provided for the uninitiated, or you can go where your hart takes you.

—  DECORATE A FRIEND  ╱  from washable paint to stick-on sequins, glitter bombs and pinnable deer tails. find a willing victim to array in deer spirit — or make one.

GAMES:

—  FÓDLAN CHESS  ╱  a traditional strategy board game using a triangle-shaped board that can be played by two to three people. the objective is to be the first to move all your pieces to one of the other corners by jumping over your opponents' pieces. are you up for the competition?

—  LIMBO  ╱  everyone knows that being a deer isn't just about strength or smarts, but flexibility. challenge mode: wear an antler crown while playing, and don't let it fall off your head!

—  ANTLER TOSS  ╱  you have five tries to land as many rings on the tines as you can for a prize. if a friend is willing, they can wear the antlers on their head for you to aim at instead!

—  DEER PONG  ╱  the classic party game, with alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions. some say that the non-alcoholic one misses the point of the challenge, but at least it lets everyone play, right?

—  HEADLOCK  ╱  in a classic show of strength, stamina, and bravado, it's time to wrestle like the stags do! put on a headdress of real oaken antlers ( not light, that ) and lock heads with your opponent to throw them to the ground! no use of other body parts or implements allowed.

GUIDELINES:

reblog this ask meme to indicate that your muse is participating! anyone who's reblogged the meme is automatically accepting asks, so no need to double-check. 　

please be mindful of not only waiting for interactions to come to you, but try to be proactive about sending to others too. it's not quite polite to always expect others to do the work! 　

muses from any house are welcome! it's a celebration meant for everyone. 　

"You..." Nasir nearly drops the cup in his hand on his foot, staring at the strange little girl who looked exactly like... "It can't be... Yune? How is that possible?"

Yune turns upon hearing her name, and is met with the third familiar face of the day. One of the dragons that stood alongside Dheginsea, she recalls. While she wishes him no ill will, she does not feel the need to disclose her true identity.

“Fear! The Deer! Fear! The Deer!” The crowd chants as Forde attempts the challenge. He’d say he’s generally flexible, but with these antlers on his head it’s hard to know whether he’ll clear the bar.

(He did not. Somehow, he met both loss conditions - the antlers fell off, and in shock he whacked his head against the bar, knocking it over)

Taking the crowd’s jeers in stride, Forde approaches a familiar face. “Professor Farina! Great to see you again, our win was entirely thanks to us.” He laughs. “You here for the limbo? I reckon you could best my attempt easily.”

♠ - There were several quirks to the Golden Deers an outsider like her was quick to notice. Like how obsessed everyone was with Deers. To the point that they'd wear exaggerated deer antlers on their heads. They were kinda tacky in her opinion but, hey, it's not really her house. She has no say in this. Well, aside from the blonde - Forde? - who'd just lost and came marching up to greet her. "Win?", she smirked up at Forde. "It was a three-way tie, last I'd checked. Neither of us made it past Round 1." Not that she wouldn't take the win if she could but she had to be rather, uh, matter-of-fact, as she'd put it.

Well, at least, there was one thing she could win today and it wasn't the battle. "You're on!", she grinned, slipping on a pair of antlers herself.

"Fear the Deer! Fear the Deer!", came the cheers as she slid under the mounting pole, wriggle by wriggle. She'd almost made it the good way through except one of the antlers caught on the mounting pole and then she slid down to the floor, freshly antlerless.

Moody's Analytics predicts that India's economy will grow by 6.1% in 2024, which is lower than the 7.7% growth seen in 2023. The country's output is still 4% below where it would have been without the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, such as supply chain issues and international conflicts.

The report, titled ‘APAC Outlook: Listening Through the Noise,’ states that the Asia Pacific region is performing better than other parts of the world, with an expected growth of 3.8% in 2024 compared to 2.5% for the global economy.

India and Southeast Asia have experienced significant output losses due to the pandemic and are just starting to recover. Inflation in India is around 5%, close to the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India's target range of 2 to 6%, and there is no clear indication that price pressures are easing.

paintbrush dips into white, and next to the lion he writes 'BATTL E OFEAGLEANDLION'. louis clicks his tongue in distaste - the writing is illegible. "ah . . . i ran out of room . . ." at that, he paints over the text - and yet, the sheer amount of paint he was applying had begun to stack. the bowl itself smelt strongly of chemicals. undeterred, he tries again. 'B ATTLE OFEAGLE ANDLION ANd DEER'. he isn't satisfied. louis furrows his brow, and paints over it again, before picking up the brush once more. "here i go!"

he stops.

"unless, you would like to try ? are you one for handiwork ?" at that, he holds the brush out. the scent of chemicals has made some people move away. "it would be my greatest joy to collaborate on this with you."

Dimitri hesitates to take the brush and bowl. Visibly, even. It is not because he doesn't want to participate with Louis - he had been delighted at the suggestion, especially with the unprecedented three-way tie, and one could never accuse Dimitri of being a poor sport - it is just...

Well...

Gently, gently, please, he reaches for the brush extended out to him, and for a moment he thinks he has the feel of it, doesn't press to hard to keep his grip on it, aren't you supposed to keep it secure in the thumb joint rather than between fingertips? He offers Louis a bright smile at even the slightest success.

"It is a good thought, Louis," he says. "The Battle oft the Eagle and Lion is an old tradition, harkening back to the War of the Eagle and Lion, before the Leicester Alliance separated from Faerghus."

Careful, careful. He reaches for the bowl, charmed by the recurring theme of absolutely atrocious lions produced by his new friend's hands. Rather than painting over it, he presses the brush to the ceramic, frowning when it leaves an unseemly streak.

"Ah, I don't suppose that can be passed off as antlers or a wing, do you?" He sighs, setting the brush down to press the tip of his finger against the smudge, hoping to coax it into something passable, or barring that, to clean it up.

"But given how important the Alliance has become, not just here at the Academy but in Fodlan at large, I suppose it would follow that they deserve a seat at the table - er, recognition in the name, that is - oh, blast - !"

He might have known that it would have happened, but as Dimitri shifts his grip on the pottery, turning it to inspect if he had made a mess further, his fingers tighten and the inevitable crack forms.

Altena frowns as she heaps another glob of icing on top of her cupcake. She had been trying to make it look nice but she might have gone a little overboard with her indecision on what to put on it. Pretzels, candies, sprinkles, a little bit of everything available. And now it's kind of a hot mess.

"It looks terrible." She holds it up for Raven to see with a laugh. "But I guess what matters is that it tastes good, right?" She takes a bite and her face instantly scrunches up in her displeasure. "Nope. Way too sweet."

It was rare to see Altena laugh, Raven realized as she turned to present the fruits of her labor. He hadn't seen her do so in the dollhouse where they'd been kept captive, nor during their training exercise, nor when they exercised the pegasi from the stables after the snow, nor during battle.

It occurred to him that perhaps the only time had been the moments he'd seen her with that idiot Linus.

Somehow the realization brought a prickling sensation to his chest, a strange comfort that he hadn't felt in such a long time that he almost didn't realize what it was.

He hesitated before his gaze softened, and he reached for his own cupcake, pausing with some deliberation before making his own decorative decisions: a smile pipe of meringue, a dash of crystal sprinkles, and a few choice raspberries.

"You might have used too many. Maybe if - "

He took a hesitant bite. The flavor was good, but ultimately...

but just as he sticks his — the whole thing — in his mouth, a man passing in front of the table strikes familiar, and rosado's face lights up like winter lights in elusia. "fhey! heyfff!"

he takes the cake pop out this time to talk and offers the man a clean one with his other hand. "here, the last one in this box. they've got fortunes in them too, though i don't know who wrote 'em. kind of mysterious, right? mine's, uh . . . "

" ' sometimes you just need to lay on the floor. ' "

. . . well, that's true.

"how about yours?"

Raven's hand moved to accept the cake pop on instinct, lifting it to inspect. It was..well, it was cute, he did have to give it that. He couldn't say that they had these kinds of things back at home, the aesthetics of foods normally reserved for things like hosting the King of Bern (which even at their best, Cornwell would never have had the honor).

Before it occurred to him to refuse, the other man was off like a shot, explaining the gimmick and reading his own.

In imitation, Raven lifted the cake to his mouth and took a tentative bite - sweet, a little gloopy, not his favorite - before his teeth grazed against a small capsule. Drawing the pop back, he frowned at it - more capsule than cake, it seemed.

"Let's see." Popping the capsule, he began to unroll the message within - longer than his partner's by a good margin, no wonder it took up most of the pop - and in a practiced monotone he began to read aloud:

"Hypocrite that you are, for you trust the chemicals in your brain to tell you they are chemicals. All knowledge is ultimately based on that which we cannot prove. Will you fight? Or will you perish like a dog?"

To his credit, he only faltered on the final word in his confusion, though the crease in his brow pinched ever tighter with each word until his face creased into a singularly baffled grimace.

A beat while the silence settled between them, before he sighed, and raised a hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose.

"Greetings Faye." Panette hands a cup of cider to her former teammate before taking a sip herself. "I must say, you put up quite the fight out there. I'm certain your deadly skills could send your opponents away and afeard, if they are not already."

Faye instinctively takes the cup of yellow-ish liquid that is offered by the other's hands, initially nervous to speak of her past failure. However, even though she was unable to protect her fellow student in battle and unable to avenge her afterwards, Panette was...not angry? Faye could see herself fuming if in the same position as her, falling due to an ally's slip-up. And yet...

"Thanks, Panette," Faye glady speaks from her initial pause, the warmth of the beverage in her hand pushing back physical and metaphorical chills. "But you were super good out there too! I could never imagine lugging around an axe and using my fists at the same time! I could learn from you, if you uh...don't mind."