—Just in time for Passover! Oh, well.
Yes, today is Passover Eve, or, as I've always known it, Erev Pesach (which means the same thing. No, really, it does--the word Pesach, or Pesakh with the transliteration Des prefers, comes from the word pasach, which means...to pass over. The name comes from when the Israelites' houses were passed over during the tenth plague in Egypt, just before the exodus from Egypt, which is what Jews are going to be celebrating starting tonight--freedom from slavery and the eventual formation of a nation.)
However, this RP is about a different holiday, one which you've encountered through the past two years' Purim RPs if you've been here and felt like participating at the time. Normally, I've been able to get it started while it's actually still Purim; this year, I...haven't. But it's here now, almost a month later, because, well, better late than never!
Purim is a pretty cool holiday, and could probably be termed a kids' favorite without too much worry of inaccuracy. Traditions involve dressing up in costumes (which can be characters from the Purim story or anything else you can dream up--I went as my Plort self this year, while the winners of the costume contest at my synagogue were a girl dressed as a present and a man who'd dressed up as the phase of the moon on the day before Purim), eating triangular cookies called hamantaschen (meaning 'Haman's pockets' in Yiddish; in Hebrew they're called oznei haman, Haman's ears, while we teach our children that he, that is the villain of the story, really had a triangular hat; who knows?), and drinking until you can't tell the villain of the story (Haman) from one of the heroes (Mordechai) (this is, of course, optional, and most definitely not required or encouraged for children). Actual commandments for the holiday include giving gifts to the poor, giving gifts of food and/or drink to friends, and hearing the Scroll of Esther (or Megillat Esther) read. There's also either a tradition or a commandment (it currently escapes me which one) to have a festive meal.
Speaking of hamantaschen, did you know they come in many, many, many different flavors? And no, I don't just mean poppy seed, and chocolate, and jam; I mean pecan pie, and triple chocolate, and red velvet. And that's not even getting into taco hamantaschen and egg roll hamantaschen!
...no, I'm not kidding. Here, have a Buzzfeed article, which presents 36 different (and, for the most part, unusual) types of hamantaschen.
(Isn't this an RP? you ask. Why, yes! I'm just getting to that.)
As you may remember from last year and the year before, the premise of the Purim RP is this:
Someone, somewhere in the PPC, is throwing a Purim party. Everyone is invited: costumes are preferred, hamantaschen and drinks and many other things will be served, someone will attempt to read the Megillah (that is, the account of the Purim story), and there will probably be a good deal of chaos. And fun. And chaos.
The Rules/guidelines are the same as the past two years:
-Everyone is welcome. That means new agents, old agents, reluctant agents, enthusiastic agents, agents who wandered in by mistake…everyone. It also means minis, kids, and possibly pets. Free-To-Use Agents are also good.
-This is newbie-inclusive! While I know some newbies (often depending on just how new they are) have agents they’re thinking about, many other newbies don’t–and, well, this is Purim. It’s a party. Everyone should be able to come! So…everyone includes Boarders, with the condition that you’re incognito! Pretend to be your costumes, pretend to be newly-recruited agents, whatever you like–as long as you remember that the vast majority of PPC HQ’s inhabitants don’t know the Board exists (and would forget if they found out). Of course, this isn’t just for newbies; if you’re not a newbie and you really, really want to, write yourself in! The same rules apply, though. (This doesn't always happen, but you're certainly welcome to go for it--as I recall, there was only one instance of it in the first year, and a whole lot of it last year. Whatever you choose, it's certainly open!)
-On canon-compliance: this one is up to you. For my part, I take most of what my agents get up to in this RP as canon, to the point of working the occasional reference into various works in progress. Referencing relatively vague details that didn't make it to the RP but are headcanoned by the author(s) of the characters is probably also something I'll end up doing eventually--such as, "Did you ever manage to get that song right?" "Which song?" "You know, the...the song. You heard it." "Oh, yeah, no--I gave up on it around the point when someone dressed like a Dalek rolled into me and refused to apologize." "Ouch." "Yeah. Rolled over my toes on the way out..." …Anyway, you can call this canon or not (or anything in between) for your agents as you wish! It’s entirely up to you.
-Have fun! It is Purim, after all, and Purim is a time for celebration. So let’s celebrate!
*Note: This Purim RP, while RL-wise taking place basically on Passover, is in-universe happening at the appropriate time. (Boarders inside the RP can mention time-travel if you like, though.)
Anyway, enough chitchat. Let’s have a party!
~DF
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PS: Look out for a subthread which will pop up at some point! More on that later :)
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PPS: If you want to take a look at the previous two opening posts, they are currently archived both here and on the Board Archives. Neither thread is currently available on the actual Board anymore, although, amusingly, the 2015 Purim RP was available as recently as March 31st of this year. And, on that note, thank you so much to everyone maintaining and contributing to the Board Archives! This post would be very different without you.
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PPPS: And so it begins!
“And then Queen Esther tells Achashverosh that it's Haman! who did all this, and he gets mad, and they take him away and I know something cool about how you sing it, because Aunty Em told me--”
Owain looked up blue eyes bright in his pudgy little face. “Singing?”
“Uh-huh! It goes all twisty or something.” Owain's older sister Ruby plopped down onto a beanbag chair. Her dark hair, in two braids, swung with the motion. She tugged at the strings of the bonnet that hung down her back, pulling the knot away from her neck. “Because it's very dramatic, and Charvona's a hero, so he gets the heroic music!”
“Oh,” said Owain. “But he isn't the hero, he's…”
“He is,” Ruby insisted with a five-year-old’s conviction. “He tells King Achashverosh that Haman wanted to hurt Mordechai.”
“No,” four-year-old Owain insisted, “Esther did that! I'm not stupid.”
“He did so,” Ruby said. “Ask Mama. She'll tell you I'm right, and then you'll see.”
Owain opened his mouth, but didn't manage more than a word before Seren, the third Sato sibling, ran up to them. “Ruby, did you see my pink hat? “
“You don't need a pink hat,” Owain protested. “K-9 doesn't wear any kind of hat!”
Seren crossed her arms and glared at her brother. “Well, I do! So too bad. Where's my hat?”
Owain shrugged both shoulders. “I dunno. Maybe Leyuu ate it!”
“Leyuu doesn't eat hats,” Ruby said derisively. “No one eats hats.”
“Maybe some people do!” Owain's chin jutted outwards. “I bet you dragons do!”
“No one eats hats,” Ruby repeated. “Eating hats is gross.”
“Is not!”
Seren stomped her foot. “Where’s my hat?”
At that point, Miss MacKinnon came over. “Come, children,” she said, “we’re going to the party now. Seren, I believe you’re missing your hat?” She held it out.
“My hat!” Seren snatched it, and then hugged Miss MacKinnon tightly around the waist. “Where was it?”
“It fell behind one of the chairs,” the Nursery worker replied. “Come, we need to go--Owain, aren’t you missing a hat as well?”
“Nuh-uh!” Owain shook his head vigorously. “I’m not Captain Jack Sparrow, I’m just a pirate! He walks funny.”
“So he does.” Miss MacKinnon turned, guiding the three towards the door as she began to walk. “I think we’re ready. Ruby, do you have everything?”
“Uh-huh!” Ruby grinned, skipping along next to the others. “And it’s going to be amazing!”
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((Leyuu is mentioned due to them knowing him Ten Years Hence. He is written by Voyd. Miss MacKinnon is both pretty cool and a Free To Use character rescued from a badfic by doctorlit. Her character here is based on her rescue by doctorlit and her appearance in a mission conclusion by Neshomeh.))
