stateofdecay | Thanksgiving @ Lundegaard (Forward-Dated to 11/28)

Thanksgiving at Lundegaard

Order of Events

ARRIVALS/VIBES @ 3:30 PM

MINGLING, DRINKS, & APPS @ 4:15 PM

DINNER @ 5:00 PM

LEADERSHIP BINGO @ 7:00 PM

LINE DANCING @ 8:00 PM

Vibes & Playlist

Mismatched furniture, tableware, and cutlery in the B&B, dining hall, and town hall. Wooden carvings of animals hung up with burlap ribbons and hand turkeys made by schoolchildren. Bouquets of dogtooth daisies and boughs of marescent leaves in red, orange, and gold. The smell of freshly baked bread, hay, and woodsmoke. Warm lights from firepits, candles, and dim, flickering fluorescent bulbs.

John played some of these chill tunes.

ON THE MENU

Drinks & Appetizers
🍹 Maggie's Pear Kombucha
🥛 Malted Milk
🍹 Whatever other drinks folks brought
🧀 Charcuterie board

Mains & Sides
🦃 Turkey
🍗 Pan-fried goose in (mostly) huckleberry sauce
🥗 Green and red leaf lettuce salad in lemon vinaigrette
🥬 Mustard greens with salt pork
🥔 Mashed potatoes au gratin
🍞 Sausage hand pies
🍞 Dinner rolls
🍽️ Any other food folks brought

Desserts
🥧 Apple pie
🍮 Baked egg custard
🫐 Wild berries in cream
🍽️ Any other dessert folks brought

VOLUNTEER SLOTS

VOLUNTEER 1 arrives too early and is enlisted to help whip cream by Lundegaard's resident tree whisperer, Alice Samayao. On the bright side, your forearm strength is going to be off the chain once you're done...

After they're released from hwhippin' it, Volunteer 1 sneaks away with some whipped cream to playfully smash it into VOLUNTEER 2's face.

DUTCH and DUKE RATTRAY spy a ladder leaning against the roof of the barn and climb on up. They get a nice view of Lundegaard in the crisp autumnal night. But—whoops—Bill Rhoades takes the ladder away when they're not looking. Dutch and Duke have to jump down (safely) from the roof into a bale of hay. Oof.

VOLUNTEER 5 stuffs themselves on food. Feeling wretched and incredibly sleepy, they knock out in an empty barrel. VOLUNTEER 6 finds them 30 minutes later. You good?

COURT SLAUGHTER makes a daring request during line dancing and gets all the dancers grooving to Rihanna's "S&M" (feat. Britney Spears). Vrow.

GAMES & DANCING

Leadership Bingo
Quaid and John have prepared 3x3 bingo cards using old notebook paper (so... bingo leaves), each randomly populated with the names of community leadership (sans John). The winner gets the honor of being THE BIG TURKEY of the evening and a dozen apple donuts.

Line Dancing
To these classic tunes! Before the outbreak, John spent some time at his local senior citizens center carefully observing line dances and at times participating. So while he claims he can't dance, he is able and willing to help anyone pick up the steps.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mara tosses Edgar a sharp look at this addendum which either says he clocked her or that he overstepped his bounds. Or, even more likely: both. She schools her expression back to an irritated frown quickly enough.

"I was in Lake Kelenqua for two weeks before the outbreak happened. No service. I was thinking about work emails the entire time," she says. The thought had left her head immediately when they'd encountered their first zombie, and she'd found her mind had become a lot more peaceful without the constant distraction. That's over now. Her hand is in her pocket as they speak, sliding the sidekick open and shut idly. "It's like. Addictive."

"You're telling me. I used to read everything people wrote about me." He still does, technically, but at least the BB doesn't allow him to set a Google Alert for his name. No need to explain to Mara how corrosive this was for him. She's from L.A.; she knew actors.

Edgar listens to the steady click of Mara's Sidekick. He thinks about Nat, worrying about her. Worrying about them both. If Nat believes they're similar, then Edgar wouldn't know either how to help Mara. Couldn't be someone who can.

"As I recall, the phones came from you. Why'd you do it?"

Moreover, and worse for him, Mara also knew an obsessive fan of his movies. She isn't just familiar with what people wrote about actors in a general sense — she remembers plenty of things they wrote about Edgar de Leon.

There's a pang of secondhand embarrassment in her chest and she glances back towards the door of the dining hall. She stops fiddling with her phone.

"I like controlling the commodities," she says flatly.

Edgar laughs. It's only a bit insincere. There's nothing funny about such ruthless pragmatism, except that he envies it.

"You're your own worst enemy." He respects Mara just enough not to add I know what that's like, but the thought crosses his mind.

Thanksgiving @ Lundegaard (Forward-Dated to 11/28)

ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECKS: Edgar

ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECKS: Edgar

ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECKS: Edgar

ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECKS: Edgar