[MINGLE] Harvest Feast 🍂

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: 6I Inn
WHEN: 10 November, all day
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE POST
NOTE: Details can be found here.

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In the wee hours of November 10th, before even the earliest risers have roused themselves for another day, items begin to appear in the front room of the Inn. Decorations first — Boughs of autumn leaves in their reds and golds, wreaths of dried flowers and silken ribbon, flickering candles among the goards and berries and acorns. The food arrives next, the decadent aroma slipping up the Inn stairs to tempt those lingering in bed — Every imaginable harvest time delicacy, from roast turkey and ham to smoked salmon and oysters; fresh, soft bread warm from the oven to plum pudding and ice cream. And did we mention pie?

Once again, it's time for a feast. The bar is stocked, the coffee is brewed and the tables are groaning with food. Indulge, there's more than enough for everyone — That is, if you don't lose your appetite worrying about what it will all cost.

Comments

[learned_to_die]

"Willas!?" Ned repeats with great incredulity. "You know, I don't know many elder brothers who'd put up with some talk from their younger, immature, and obviously less intelligent sibling." He puts on a good show of coming off as offended, but in truth, he's nothing of the sort. In fact, all of this incredibly amusing, and it takes the vast majority of his energy to keep himself bursting into laughter.

Mention of such a fond and mischievous memory, however, finally breaks the dam, and he finds he's no longer able to keep it all in. A belly shaking rumble of laughter pours out of him, lasting for half a minute. When he finally begins to catch his breath again, he subtly picks up a piece of bread and flings it at her from across the table.

"Like that, you mean?"

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"Less intelligent?" It's nearly yelled, her excitement going against her sense of manners. She considered smushing some of her food against him, but held back. She might not keep an indoors voice, but she would at least behave like a proper lady...as much as she could. "You have gone too far, big brother. I don't think anyone can deny that I had the most sense in the family." Says the girl who ran off without a word.

She gives a feigned gasp as he threw the bread at her. Without hesitating, she took a spoonful of mashed potatoes and flicked it at him. She had done this as a child with Benjen, along with pouring a number of things on him over time, but this was the first that she ever threw food at her brother.

"No, like this!"

[learned_to_die]

"I can't help but notice how you failed to show such insult at being called immature," Ned mumbles loudly enough for to hear, of course. "You? The most sense in the family? Aren't you the one who more or less inherited the bloodline's share of Wolf Blood? I don't think you can have them both. They'd negate each other. As evidence," he comments, gesturing to her by raising his hand up and down.

He raises his arms to block his face from meeting the mashed potatoes, and although they catch the bulk of it, they cause little pieces to go flying everywhere back towards him. He lets out a sound of disgust at the feeling.

"I stand by my assessment of you as being less intelligent!" he shouts, scooping some unrecognizable casserole dish onto his spoon and flinging it at her.

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"Wolf's blood gives you good instincts." Except she knew that it didn't really. If it did, Brandon would be considered a genius and exalted among men. In reality, both she and Brandon rushed headlong into whatever took their attentions. But that didn't matter right now, not when she and Ned were playing like they were children again.

She was quick to duck the casserole, but several bits of it became tangled in her hair. She let out a loud cry, turning several eyes towards them. She scooped a large amount of peas with her spoon and hurled it at Ned again.

"You're jealous! You wish you could be as intelligent as me. I was Old Nan's favorite for a reason, you know!"

[learned_to_die]

"Is that so? We must be talking of two entirely different things, then. The Wolf Blood I know makes one impulsive and brash, and often leads to premature greying in one's parents and love ones," Ned replies with a squinting look of discernment. They both knew he had the correct definition, but it was fun to play like this. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine them in the Great Hall at Winterfell, both of them small with their feet barely grazing the ground beneath them, their parents tsking and scolding their behaviors.

He held up a hand at the barrage of pea, catching a few in his hand, which he promptly throws back at her.

"Old Nan was mad, and you know it!"

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"Mm, yes, so I see." She reached across to tug on a lock of his hair. "Look how old you have become. How much of that gray is because of me?" Likely most, if not all. She had caused enough trouble for her family to have turned all of their hairs white, even before she chose to run away. Their father had tried to curb her behavior and her influence on Ned, and while he succeeded in sending Ned to be fostered by Jon Arryn, he never could temper Lyanna's wild impulses.

She shook her head, knocking the caught peas to the floor.

"She was not. Old Nan was wise and clever! She recognized I was the best of the family!"

[learned_to_die]

"Ow!" Ned protests at the tug, head tilting in the direction of the pull. "All of it. Or a good majority of it, at least. Children tend to grey their parents well enough, but you were like having a child long before I ever earned the title of father!" He'd have had it no other way, of course, but now was not the time for overt sentimentality. In earnest, for men of Winterfell, those times were few and far between.

"That proves it, you know. That she was mad. Only a mad, old woman could think you the best of the Starks."