Spring Festival in Capital Crocus

-Capital Crocus, 10:00 A.M.-

Dressed in his usual outfit of white t-shirt, olive green cargo pants, and black boots, Leonidas was on his way to the "Spring Festival" being held in Capital Crocus today. He had heard talk about it in his neighborhood from a young man and woman passing by his house on the way to the festival. He had heard that everyone was invited to participate in it, so Leonidas decided to go see what it was about. He had yet to do any "real" work as a freelance mage even after he had gotten a passport, an iLac, and a decent starting weapon, but real work could wait a little bit longer. After this festival he could start looking for the "real work" he could find.

Satisfied with that reasoning for going to the festival instead of looking for a job, Leonidas carefully followed the crowds and eventually arrived at the site where the Spring Festival was being held. It was a sight to behold. He saw a lot of people walking around the place and a good deal of them were dressed in colors like lavender, mint green, light blue, and other bright colors commonly associated with spring. Leonidas felt a little shabby standing there in his plain white t-shirt and other everyday attire, but there was little he could do about it until he could afford some fancier clothing.

Leonidas walked around to get a feel for what activities were being offered and to get a look at the number of people in line for each activity before he committed to a particular activity. Being sure not to bump into anyone or slow down the pedestrian traffic by lingering too long in any one place, Leonidas carefully made a loop of the large festival area and observed everything he could. With all the activities going on there was certainly a lot to look at.

-Thirty minutes later-

Having gotten a decent idea of what the festival had to offer, Leonidas was about to decide what activity he wanted to do first. He did not feel like running around to look for Easter eggs because he felt that he would look ridiculous. He also did not feel like doing the Leprechaun Relay Race either because he was not sure if there was a costume big enough for him to wear without damaging it when he tried to cram himself inside of it. He would only do those activities if there was no other choice.

Leonidas had spotted an Easter Egg Painting activity and had some interest in trying that. He was also interested in participating in the Easter Feaster activity. If he felt up to it there was also a Dance Around The Maypole activity. There were quite a few activities to choose from, so Leonidas was sure to find something entertaining to take part in during the Spring Festival.

[Post Word Count: 484]
[Total Word Count: 484/2,000]

-At the Easter Egg Painting activity-

After giving it some thought Leonidas had decided to participate in the Easter Egg Painting activity. He had some reservations about whether he possessed good enough fine motor skills to paint an egg without making a mess out of it, but then he decided to go for it anyway. He had plenty of time in which to paint the egg with a design of his choosing and this was not a competition. While he did not want to make mediocre work, he would not lose anything if he failed to produce a breathtaking work of art.

Leonidas walked over to one of the empty stations, a small individual table which had an egg, some paintbrushes, and many different colors of paint waiting for him. He watched other people of all ages fill the other empty stations and patiently waited for the signal to start painting while listening to a rundown of the rules. Once the explanation was complete and all stations were filled the painters received the signal to begin, which was a sharp blast from a whistle.

Leonidas picked up a thin-bristled paintbrush in his right hand and held the egg in his left hand, selected the color yellow as his starting color, and began to slowly and carefully paint a zigzag pattern in the middle of the egg. He moved his brush slowly and carefully to try and make a clean and solid line while slowly turning the egg, but he messed up on the fourth zigzag and made the line a little too jagged. Leonidas took a quiet breath, dipped the paintbrush into the yellow paint to get more paint on it, and resumed painting the zigzag pattern.

About six minutes later he was finished with the first zigzag, so after a few moments of thought he opted to paint a second one right on top of the first to make the pattern bigger. Leonidas dipped his paintbrush into the yellow paint and started the careful work. He painted slower and more carefully this time to try and make his work look neater the second time around. The slower approached worked better for him the second time around because despite it taking ten minutes to do it looked a lot neater. Leonidas gently moved the egg around in the fingers of his left hand and looked the egg over to determine what he wanted to do next.

He had enough time to get away with adding a third yellow zigzag pattern on top of the first two to make it a little bigger.

Having decided on his course of action, Leonidas dipped his paintbrush into the yellow paint and began work on the third yellow pattern.

-At the end of the activity-

Leonidas had spent the entire hour painting his egg the best he could. At the end of the contest he had an egg where both ends were white but the middle had a lavender zigzag pattern with a small white space between the yellow one. He had started work on a light blue zigzag just below the yellow one when time was called, so the egg looked incomplete. Some of the lines also had evidence of the brush moving off-course and thus making the lines look uneven, but on the whole Leonidas was satisfied with his creation.

He cleaned out the paintbrush and set it aside for the next participant to use, making sure to take his painted egg with him. As he walked away from the station he was given a small blue plastic Easter Egg by one of the event staff, which he carefully put into his left cargo pocket. Once that was done he left the Easter Egg Painting activity area to look for something else to do. He had plenty of time and plenty of choices... it was a matter of finding something that caught his interest.

[Post Word Count: 652]
[Total Word Count: 1,136/2,000]

Leonidas has earned one Easter Egg from completing the Easter Egg Painting activity. He has gained one out of three small Easter Eggs required for event completion.

-One hour and thirty minutes later-

After completing the Easter Egg Painting activity Leonidas was on the hunt for another activity to participate in. He was considering doing either the Dance Around The Maypole or the Easter Feaster activities, but he was not certain what order he wanted to do them in. He was not sure whether to do the dance first or partake of the free food and drink before doing the dance. Then there was the possibility of participating in the Four-Leaf Clover Hunt.

Leonidas was having difficulty deciding what to do first because all three activities were appealing. He took a quiet breath and quietly exhaled as he walked around and tried to make a decision. Usually it was best not to rush to a decision, but the lines for each activity were not getting any shorter, so he needed to make a choice soon and get in line. Leonidas continued to walk while he tried to settle on something to do.

-Twenty minutes later-

After quite a bit of walking around Leonidas finally decided on checking out the Easter Feaster activity because he had forgotten to eat before he left home. With his decision being made for him by his stomach, the scar-faced blond man followed the signs pointing to a street not too far from the festival area and found himself approaching a beautifully decorated street with green and gold cloth hanging from some buildings while others were festooned with light blue and lavender cloth. All around were beautiful flowers of many different varieties that had been placed in planters of colors appropriate to the occasion like green, gold, light blue, lavender, mint green, pink, and others.

There were so many varieties of flowers that the mage from the desert could not recognize them all... or recognize many of them, for that matter. They were still beautiful, though. He walked down the street set aside for the Easter Feaster activity and noticed the abundance of seating in the area. There was enough seating for everyone to be able to sit down at either a long table or on a bench... no one would have to stand up and eat unless they chose to.

Leonidas was impressed by the decorations, but to him the real draw was the food. A lot of other people had had the same idea and were milling about the area either choosing their meal or on the way to secure seating for themselves. Leonidas found the line to the tables loaded with many different meals from many different places and got into it, waiting his turn to get to the table and pick something out. There were fifty people in line ahead of him, so he would have to be patient.

-Forty-five minutes later-

After finally getting to the table Leonidas looked at the food he could choose from. He was stunned by the dazzling variety of dishes on display. There were a wide variety of meat dishes, vegetarian dishes, fish-based dishes, and so many other options, all of which were on long tables dedicated to each kind of dish. There were so many meals to choose from that he was temporarily paralyzed by indecision. Knowing that he had to choose something so that he did not hold up the people behind him, Leonidas walked over to the table with meat dishes and picked out a meat dish called "Beef Wellington."

He got a plateful of it, then sought out the table with side dishes. He soon found it and got a serving of scalloped potatoes with cheese. Once he had prepared his meal he grabbed some sturdy plastic utensils and a sturdy napkin, got out of the way of the people behind him, and began looking for the beverage area to get something to drink.

Leonidas worked his way over to the beverage area and found that there were abundant drink options plus a bartender manning a fully stocked minibar nearby for those festival attendees who were eighteen years of age or older. The blond man was twenty-five years old, but he had no desire for alcohol and was not going to drink today. He instead opted to get a cup of plain water. Putting his painted egg into his left pants pocket for lack of a better storage option, Leonidas grabbed a sturdy plastic cup of water with his left hand and carefully turned around, then began looking for a place to sit with his food.

-Twenty minutes later-

Having located a recently vacated bench to sit on, Leonidas set the plate of food down, then carefully removed the painted egg from his pocket so that he did not crush it in his pocket when he sat down. He sat down, placed the egg in his lap, and then set his plastic cup of water down near his feet. Finally Leonidas grabbed his plate of Beef Wellington and scalloped potatoes with cheese, grabbed his utensils, and started eating.

-Fifteen minutes later-

After fifteen minutes spent eating the food Leonidas set the empty plate to his right and used his napkin to wipe the empty plastic cup out and soak up any excess water, then left the napkin inside of it. He then gently deposited his painted egg inside the new egg carrier. Leonidas then picked up the cup and held it in his left hand as he picked up his empty plate with his right hand and sought out a trash receptacle. He found one about ten meters away and put the empty plate inside.

Leonidas had a favorable opinion of his meal. The meat was tender and easy to chew. It was obviously not a cheap cut nor were any shortcuts taken during its preparation. The scalloped potatoes were well-made too and added a lot to the Beef Wellington, but he was not a gourmet, so he would not know what the best side dish to complement the Beef Wellington was.

The blond man was about to go walk around again when an event staff member approached him and handed him two small plastic Easter Eggs. One was green and one was gold. He thanked the staff member, put them into his right cargo pocket since his left hand was full, and then went on his way. He was going to do another loop of the festival to see if there was anything else he wanted to do before heading for home.

[Post Word Count: 1,074]
[Total Word Count: 2,210/2,000]

Leonidas has earned two Small Easter Eggs from completing the Easter Feaster activity.

When combined with the egg earned from the Easter Egg Painting activity, Leonidas now has all three eggs necessary for event completion.

-One hour and twenty minutes later-

Having walked around the festival area mostly to get some exercise and walk off his meal, Leonidas had looked around one last time to see if there was one last activity that he really, really wanted to do before he called it a day. Nothing else that he wanted to participate in really jumped out at him, so the scar-faced blond was going to head for home.

The Easter Egg Painting activity went better than he had expected it to go. While his egg was not a work of art, he had managed to do a decent job of painting it, a decent enough job that he could look at it without recoiling in horror. He had also managed to paint the egg without getting any paint on his shirt or pants, which was another plus.

The Easter Feaster activity was one that had been well worth waiting in line for. All of the food was presented well and it tasted great. Leonidas was glad that he had chosen the Beef Wellington with a side of scalloped potatoes with cheese because it had been a great meal that he would not soon forget.

Satisfied with everything he had done today, Leonidas finished his last loop around the festivity area and once he got on the main path leading out of the area started out for home. He was glad to have attended the Spring Festival and had had a surprising amount of fun despite his relatively brief stay at the event. He would take the rest of the day off and sit around his apartment, then start looking for a "real" job very soon.

[Post Word Count: 280]
[Total Word Count: 2,490/2,000]