Frey and Zenobia's Post-Wedding Gathering

[fr3y]

First of all, I'm not a writer, I'm not a singer, I'm not good at socializing.

I was what you might call, a nervous wreck. I'd been having trouble putting together meaningful gatherings for my 5th sphere task.

The first was very successful due to the attendance of Akkadian and I was having trouble with a follow-up. Thankfully I was blessed with a rather impromptu wedding with Zenobia. So impromptu that I thought she deserved something more meaningful, a sort of wedding gathering and why not try to make it count toward my sphere task. I was a bit worried over the "commercializing" of something meant to be sentimental, so I asked Zenny about it. She loved the idea and would be available monday evening. Seeing as how it was friday posed a slight problem but i could do this ! After all my love was an endless source of inspiration I could draw from. So I accepted the challenge.

One of the first things I wanted was to write a song for Zen. Can I write songs, no.. can I sing, no.. but i can play the guitar a bit, so I went with it. The song had to be beautiful, had to be special.. I didn't think I'd be capable of such a feat but would find out for sure on monday. That first evening was spent hanging out with zenny and finishing tasks for my apprenticeship.

Saturday I began work on the song, the centerpiece of my gathering. The hardest part by far. After literally 5 hours I had little to show for my efforts. I was in trouble.

She also liked word games, taking a break from the song I gathered a few in preparation then started on another crucial issue, the time of the event. There were some housemates that I thought HAD to be there. Tember for one. Another crippling issue was that the lyceum had an event 730 I believe.. Tember could only dream early. So did I start at 5ish ?
That might kill attendance.. did I start at 9? That's way too late for some and I wouldn't have my housemates available. An inspiration struck me to start at 530, take a break for the lyceum even and then pick up after it. In my mind I pictured my event as easy conversation with some event s mixed in. So I began putting together the lighter events in the first half and the really fun events for the second. Satisfied I went with that.

That night I had a bit of a breakthrough as far as the song. Small but meaningful. I had a skeletal framework from which to improve on. I was exhausted though , and still had a full day and another partial one to complete things.

Sunday I slacked off somewhat but decided on the best word game I could find and wrote instructions and fleshed that out entirely. Avoiding the song for now I made up a word game and began creating another for the first half. This ate up entirely too much time and I still wasn't sure I liked it. I wanted something mentally challenging but sort of light. Eventually I would find out it was neither.

Monday, the day of the event. First off I had to finish that song and maneuver though my shardic duties, which were usually light and also a shardic guest who was basically bedridden from an accident. But she chose that morning to come out of it, of course. Balancing all 3, it was finally around 3 in the afternoon things decided to somewhat settle down. So I now was in a panic.

The song! Around 430 I had something I really liked, thankfully. I needed the second half to be strong so I worked on that a bit then focused on the half hour. I had a pet to be auctioned, the game, and little else other than the most important part, the song. Was I just hoping it was good though, or was it truly good ? I didn't have time to worry about it though.

All too soon, 530 came around. No attendees at all. Maybe this is for the best and I can go back to the drawing board again.

Then Coraal came in. I wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad sign. I find coraal to have a very strong personality but one I personally never really jived with. That and the fact that we'd just finished a rather crutal war left me even more uncertain. But I had to be polite at the very least. He was using a cane and I learned the injury was from a ritual at harrows. We had a bit of easy conversation, it seemed he was feeling down over sorsha, we all were but his relationship with her was a special one and I felt sincere compassion for his situation, and his need for an upbeat event.

Then Zenny showed and my mood was instantly improved to a vast degree. I truly loved this girl and needed her at my side, not matter how the event went I knew that much.

We had a nice little conversation about marriage, sweet almost. Coraal was the perfect guest and offered his congratulations.

Jade came and wrote a task for zenny then left, promising to be back. We spoke a bit about sorsha then Jade returned. Wine was served to her and green tea to Coraal. As I went through the traditional process of preparing the tea, Tember and Vampyro entered. Vampyro took his usual spot at the bar as barkeep.

And of course, I began to worry.

Vampyro executed his traditional role as bartender very well, placing out drinks for all in a very professional manner. It was then I was told Zenny could only attend the first half. I began to worry a bit, but decided to carry on as planned, move the song to the end of the first half along with the pet adoptions.

Tember made out with a drumstick while BC and Lace joined us as I presented the group with my pet for adoption. I thought it was interesting as far as a pet. It basically was a bloodworm, that when placed on ones arm would split and spread to the veins on one arm in say, a 5 inch radius. releasing a chemical that would induce a sedative effect calming the person. To remove it just took a bit of cold water. The problem was if overused it would stain the vein pattern red, making it less and less effective in that particular area and continual abuse would cause body wide staining until finally the would be useless, cutting off the addict from their addiction and occasionally leading to madness. As basic as that sounds it took me a few hours.

I allowed a few minutes afterward for people to mingle, but things quickly slowed and it seemed that a sense of boredom was creeping over things. Zenobia was charming as ever, making jokes, causing coraal to blush, being her usual amazing self. Xererth joined us as well.

We were approaching the middle point as we began the word game. This was my mistake. I went with the one I borrowed from another traditional game instead of the better one I'd saved for the second half. I felt it was good enough at the time.

After explaining the prizes to everyone I began explaining the rules. They are as follows.

FLOAT.. you go around a circle with someone starting with the first letter of a word, it can be any letter. the next person then adds a letter to either the begginning or the end. it at any time a word is created 4 letters or longer the last one to add a letter loses and gains a letter of the word FLOAT. And that person starts a new round. here I'll give an example.

at this point flower entered and was handed a drink from vampyro

I repeated the instructions shed missed and continued with my example.
Dreamer one says T,
dreamer two must add a letter to the front or the back so he says T-A
Dreamer 3 adds an C, making T-A-C
Dreamer 4.. if they say K a word is formed and they gain a letter in FLOAT so 4 says T-T-A-C, having the word attack in mind
5 adds a to the beginning A-T-T-A-C
6 cant think of anything and adds a k to the end forming a word and losing A-T-T-A-C-K ... 1-5 mock his stupidity

BUT you can bluff, say add an X to the begining and the following can challenge. if they win the challenge 5 gets the F, if not they DO and start a new word

Also in my rush to give directions, i missed some questions asked. Yet another mistake.

But we decided to go ahead with it and it worked well somewhat. Some broke off to duel each other, wandering in and out of our circle. some were trancing and taking entirely too long to answer, and my wife was wise enough to tell me it wasn't working. I felt that I had to save this if the gathering was to be a success, but was apparently I'm not as wise as Zenny and eventually had to call it.

Zenny began to hype the pet adoption while I was feeling that I made a mess of everything. With the least amount of accumulated numbers Coraal and Dreiko won. Coraal decided on a resilience ele as his prize, a flat +30, and dreiko didn't want a prize.

Flower said it was a good game and coraal, once again showing his support stated he found it rather enjoyable and would play it again.

Our time was drawing short so I moved straight to the pet adoption, all present were there for my earlier explanation so we threw randoms. Flower won ultimately and was presented with the pet.

It's safe to say everything depended on the song.. and i was questioning it big time. Suddenly all the hours I'd spent on it weren't nearly enough but I needed to sing it as we were approaching the time of the Lyceum event.
I stood under the bright lights and thought to myself, this is for zenny and what greater gift can I give than any remaining self respect that I possess.

For whatever reason that heightened my mood as I chuckled to myself and decided that this would all be worth it if she liked the song. After taking a very short trance to gather myself I began it.

"So many dreams, I've came and waited
In times so dark i couldn't go on
Yet still my heart anticipating
Someone out there made me strong
it helped me hold on...

T'was some dreamers said I'm crazy
And even more say I'm being naive
But 'twas the thought of you that saved me
The thought of you made me believe"

Coraal was tapping his foot at this point and zenny was enjoying it, so with my heart a bit lighter I continued it

"Within the dream when you need me
You just have to call my name
You've only to close your eyes to see me
All you do is call my name"

BC was snapping his fingers, Zenny was crying I began to feel a lot better

"We don't need to find all the answers
We don't need to understand
Let's run away and take our chances
The truth's there when we're holding hands"

My voice cracked a bit, d'oh !

"I had waited a lifetime, lost and lonely
Praying an angel be sent to me
And here she sits right here before me
A happier man, you'll never see"

Zenny was blubbering at this point, I was sweaty and wiping it from my brow..

"Even the dream can't go forever
Every moment is a song
Cause now we face our dream together
Something so right, cannot be wrong.Can ne'er be wrong !"

Zenobia ran up and hugged me, coraal was applauding broadly and stated "It had excellent rhythm and the words flowed wonderfully" and there was a general applause that was welcome.


Our time was drawing short and people were showing from the Lyceum event to see what was happening, so I moved straight to the pet adoption, all who were interested were there for my earlier explanation so we threw randoms. Flower won ultimately and was presented with the pet.

The Lyceum began their event so my gathering broke down quickly after that. Feeling a deep respect for coraal's participation and support I gave him some additional prizes and told my wife goodnight as we both woke together.