Luscious Pumpkin Jam (dated to Halloween night)

[ugly-old-hat.livejournal.com]

The party was not intended to celebrate Halloween, actually, but to celebrate the existence of pumpkins. It just seemed Halloween would be a good time for that kind of a celebration.

Wizarding culture had a special regard for the pumpkin, making it into tarts and juice and savories, forcing it down the gullets of every magic-user from such a tender age as to form a lifelong habit. The Sorting Hat, being steeped in magic, had also steeped itself in many a vessel of pumpkin juice over the centuries of its storied existence. Pumpkin juice, pumpkin ale, pumpkin hooch. Gooey pumpkin-gut strings, luxurious nutrient-rich slime studded with pale seeds. Oh pumpkins, glorious gourd of wizard's delight!

The Hat had dubbed this party after one of its favorite recipes: the LUSCIOUS PUMPKIN JAM.

The huge doors of the Great Hall were open. While magic kept the chill seasonal drafts from the Great Hall itself, party-goers who wished to enjoy the crisp autumn air could do so from the luxury of a pumpkin carriage. These were quite literally hollowed pumpkins that the Hat's magic had transfigured into full-size carriages, capable of carrying several occupants. Each was lit from within by enchanted candles, and studded with gleaming black jewels, with carved faces in lieu of windows. Several of the enchanted wonders were lined up outside the doors, with their house-elf coachmen ready to whisk students around the school grounds in slightly-gooey, pumpkin-scented comfort.

Indoors, all was warm and merry, and candlelit, and mostly orange. Instead of bobbing for apples, guests could bob for miniature pumpkins, the sort Martha Stewart might have used to decorate a mantelpiece, their tub filled with pumpkin juice in lieu of water. A pumpkin-carving station took prominent position near the doors, with paints and yarn to bedeck uncarved gourds for those students uninterested in pulling out pumpkin pulp. Tables had been moved to accommodate a dance floor, with a karaoke machine placed nearby. Golems inspired by Arcimboldo, wholly composed of autumnal fruits, did duty as waiters and DJs.

From the vantage of the head table, elevated above the main body of the hall, the Hat could take in all at once the entire spectacle. Satisfied, it rapped a self-congratulatory pastiche/homage:

"There ain't no party like a Sorting Hat party 'cause a Sorting Hat party don't STOP!"

The Hat felt most coolio itself, extending a strap to caress languidly the sequined sombrero that lay beside its place at the Great Hall's head table. The sombrero did not respond, of course. It was rather like the hat-equivalent of a RealDoll. Inert though it might be, the sombrero was velvety AND blingy, and that was what mattered.

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[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard might not be the most welcome of sights, but he was a familiar sight. He had that much going for him!

To honor the evening's festivities, the mage had for once dressed in something other than that traveling gear he favored. He had actually put on wizarding robes, of the style and cut one might find in any Diagon Alley clothier's shop. Had he gone so far as to get a damned haircut, he might even have looked dashing in these robes. Alas, he was the same old bespectacled Lezard, with long bangs flopping across his high pale brow.

He probably smelled nice, if anyone could notice it under the pumpkin-spiced aroma that suffused the entire Hall.

"They are making frightful lanterns," he said, just at Lenneth's shoulder, "to put evil spirits to flight. Or so I've read. I must say neither paint nor yarn appeared in any written accounts on the subject of Hallows' Eve, and certainly there was no glitter. Nor glitter paints."

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

Of course he'd find her here. No matter where she went, the mage found her. It was as if were in tune with her presence and just gravitated towards her. By now, she'd resigned herself to having to put up with his presence. She couldn't deny that he did look... somewhat attractive. In that light.

"How could lanterns made from a fruit frighten away spirits? I swear, you mortals make up the strangest of activities." Even after everything, yes, she still considered him a mortal. He acted like one often enough.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

As might be expected, Lezard bridled at this. He managed to keep his tone creamy-smooth, but a tension in his jaw belied the forced calm, and a tautness crept into that velvet voice, like fabric drawn tight between clenching hands. "Only memory can aid me in understanding the actions of mortals." This, from Mister I AM THE ABSOLUTE ENTITY! I AM GOD!, was a subtle reminder. "You, too, may consult the memories of the mortal lives foisted upon you, my goddess. Recall the sadness of Platina, in circumstances beyond her control." He did not know everything he would like to know about her life as Platina, but he did know the history he'd gleaned during his travels with Arngrim and Mystina leading up to Ragnarok — a time when, as he saw it, the Valkyrie owed her life to Lezard Valeth and his charming homunculi.

"One who is small and powerless may seek to alleviate those feelings by taking actions of just such scale, the smallness to which they are limited. The petty superstitions of the darkened world, enslaved by gods and dead ritual. Yet there is beauty, I think, in their attempts at propitiation. Just as there was beauty in the statuary of Odin's temples, statues depicting your divine glory, even as Odin himself declined and stagnated..." His tension softened, and his voice with it, as he expounded this impromptu theory, and recalled the beauty of his Crystal Lenneth and Metallic Lenneth figurines the awesome statues with boobies.

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

She took a small amount of satisfaction that she'd managed to irritate him, if only a little. Nothing else she did had ever seemed to get him to leave her be but referring to him as mortal... Well, she'd remember that. Although, she couldn't help but huff herself when he mentioned Platina. Damn him for having a good point.

"Platina's memories are few and far between. It's not a life I care to remember." That was kind of a lie, she remembered most of Platina's life. It was true that she didn't care to remember it.

"I can understand why powerless humans would do so then, but these people aren't powerless. Everyone here is capable of magic, so why would they need such things?" Why was she even humoring him with conversation? ... At least he hadn't tried anything particularly reckless, creepy or irritating.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard shrugged. "For enjoyment, I suppose, if not for the sake of habit or tradition. I myself see little value in tradition for tradition's sake, but occasionally a thing is worth doing for pleasure alone, absent stark necessity — or, it may be, absent of even the most vestigial and slight utility!"

A wry smile, then, for the pumpkin-carving table, and then the smile turned toward Lenneth to share with her his good humor.

"For so long under the yoke of Odin, the life of a valkyrie would be dictated by duty. But as creator and goddess supreme, have you no time for pleasure? To exercise your aesthetic sense, mayhap?"

Well, probably not, since she'd had to go pursue Lezard backward through time. But Lezard hoped to provoke deeper thought than a mere recitation of fact!

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

"I can't fault them that. Tradition is a large part of most societies." She hadn't observed many but she knew, from speaking with her einherjar, about some of them. If only she'd had more time to talk to them then. It seemed that here though, she'd have the chance to learn new traditions and she wasn't against learning.

Lenneth shook her head. Even before chasing after Lezard, business in Asgard had kept her quite busy. She imagined that Odin had neglected several of his own duties, leaving Freya to take care of certain things he should have been. And there was the need to adjust to being All-Mother instead of just a Valkyrie.

"I had no time to myself. There was too much work to be done, even without a pressing need to rest there wasn't always enough time." Time, ha! Yeah, that might've been intentional.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

He lowered his eyes, as if in respect or in remorse. "You have time now," he remarked quietly.

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

Well... Lenneth eyes widened slightly and she actually turned to look at him. Of course she realized she had time now but to hear it so plainly from him- she just wasn't prepared for that.

"I suppose I do now, don't I?" For all he'd done, and with how he spoke now, she just couldn't bring herself to be sharp just yet. "I've been practicing with the instruments you left me with some of my time."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

If he'd been invisibly spying on her and had seen her playing the musical instruments, now would not be the time to say so. Even Lezard knew that.

"Have you indeed?" He sounded surprised, pleasantly surprised. "It gladdens me that you would not disdain a gift offered in good faith, whatever you may feel toward the giver."

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

Very bad indeed. Lenneth's mood would turn most foul if he had mentioned it. For now though, she nods and reaches into her robe because her mun is a loser neglected to mention what she was wearing and pulls out the panpipe he'd left her. Her favorite so far. The moog synthesizer might still be giving her trouble.

"The instruments never did anything harmful before. I wouldn't take anything out on them."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

"I remember reading at school, in Flenceburg, a treatise in which the author was arguing that music and poetry are harmful unless subordinated to a higher cause. He'd have restricted all music to Odinic hymns." Lezard snorted. "The idea was that certain kinds of music, frivolous music and ballads of love or vengeance, would turn the mind toward wrongdoing and away from virtue. If that author were to be believed, then all the musical instruments I gave you carry within them the potential for harm." A light laugh. "And yet there is no such danger, and never was. Only the curmudgeonly scribblings of some old man, dignified by the name of philosophy."

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

"And he never considered that perhaps the music might sooth a weary soul? Music can influence people either way." Lenneth sighed. While some mortals could be so incredibly intelligent and valuable, others spouted off nonsense in a way that may them seem intelligent. She knew a couple gods who enjoyed music and they hadn't turned out worse than they ever had been.

"I suppose music could influence someone. If they were weak-minded enough to let it or already had a tendency for wrongdoing or otherwise."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

"Your observation has the ring of truth, goddess. How many other pleasures, I wonder, are only what we make of them? Only when we see harm is there real harm."

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

"I've had many years to observe, while serving as a Valkyrie. There really is no telling how many... pleasures can do harm." And Lenneth can see harm in plenty of things, except she's starting to see more good lately.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

This was the time for Lezard to pretend he cared about Valkyrie morality in any sense beyond its effect on his chances of getting into a Valkyrie's pants.

"If you have the time —" a modest pause, downcast eyes — "I should be interested to hear of these observations. I have much to learn. The learning process never ceases, no matter how high one's level of attainment."

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

That honestly surprises Lenneth more than anything else he's done before. And she's just going to stare at him for a long moment before clearing her throat.

"I'm not sure what I could tell you that you haven't known yourself but... I don't see much harm in it."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Mwahahahaha ... ahahaha .. ahem.

"Perhaps over a glass of pumpkin elixir, then? It contains no intoxicants, and I am assured it is dispensed fresh when requested directly from a house-elf."

Even Lenneth might know about Hogwarts' tradition of enchanted food-tampering.

[engravedonsouls.livejournal.com]

Oh she was warned about it but she hasn't experienced it, thank the gods. And if luck stays on her side, she won't ever. Although, being nice to Lezard, she probably ran out of luck, huh?

"That sounds nice, actually." Nice and Lezard, in the same line of thinking. Lenneth's world has flipped upside down.