RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Pumpkinweed · **12-28-2014, 03:57 PM**

The day's priorities including the following:

Breakfast

Waxing and polishing every pumpkin in the plot

Checking every pumpkin (individually) for any imperfections

Explaining to each pumpkin that it's okay to 'not be perfect and that it made them unique'

Watering the pumpkins

Lunch

Checking the roster of the Piquant Pumpkin

Jotting notes as to what changes are required

Thinking up pumpkiny candy ideas

Writing algorithms for the ideas

Using stock supplies to create the candy

Testing the new candy

Liking it no matter what and adding it to future promotions

Starting a nice campfire

Reading spooky stories to the pumpkins

Dinner

More stories

Sleep

The awful truth about this tedious workload was that it happened, each and every single day. There came many times when others offered to talk with Gus, or invited him to congregate. When Gus explained ' I cannot take the time off of work', he simply was not jesting. The set schedule was actually smaller than it used to be due to his self-induced exile from society. While some might grow mad, Gus was used to set conditions of living out in the wilderness without anyone tossing him a moment's notice.

It had only been about twenty four moons since he had left home in Ul'dah and eighty four moons since the Calamity had struck Hydalen. In that strange time, Gus had been through many life-altering endeavors. He broke ties with his own family after ending a betrothal to an opposing and rival business, moved across the world with no money, lived in the wilds of the Shroud with only pumpkin seeds and stolen foods to nourish him, increased his knowledge of business and quaint (but useless) facts and somehow created one of the most successful businesses in all of Eorzea.

There were good moons and less than stellar moons but in all that time, Gus himself, never regretted all he met or those that had taken the road with him. The very last Spooky the 13th, his bi-annual event, was set a few suns before All Saints Wake. The event had crippled his stock of pumpkins, but like always Gus's new stock was well along the way... and then the strange phenomenon occurred.

It came with the mists, or so Gus still thought. The truth was that when his pumpkins became coated and filled with strange green ooze, which glowed eerily in the bells of the night, he simply could not manufacture or sell the pumpkins despite their 'spooky' appearance. There was the liability of his reputation, which was already considered abrasive, as well as the possibility of seriously sickening someone. So the eccentric lalafell looked to all his plots, expecting that the Cedarwood plot has simply gone rotten only to learn that every pumpkin plot he owned was suffering the same detrimental effects.

He launched a personal investigation seeing as his employees or associates were all but busy with their own personal shenanigans. Gus traveled across Eorzea to check on several farm lands. It was not only his pumpkins suffering, but other produce as well. Despite the risk of famine coming upon the populace, Gus could not convince many to come together and work towards unraveling the mystery.

Some time had passed and there had been no recentÂ occurrences of the ooze. Was it all some sabotaging prank? Was it an actual supernatural phenomenon? He couldn't figure it out and perhaps he never would. The notes on his findings were all available for dabbling in case the event occurred again in the future.

The plot in the Cedarwood was looking healthy and his work there was done. It was high time for the lalafell to take the ferry across the barren sea to visit one of his many plots settled in the Shroud. When asked why Gus never simply used the stone vigils, he came off hypocritical. How could someone obsessed with the supernatural and anything spooky be afraid of aetheral travel? He never explained it to any and no one thought to ask him. In fact, there wasn't much that anyone asked Gus of other than his business and schedule... except Gus's pumpkins.

While he knew that the pumpkins themselves were not sentient beings, he still took to the habit of pumpkins being his closest companions; that was until Hopkins the fruit bat arrived. Not too long after, Wakalaka- a beautiful and equally eccentric lalafell, became a part of his life.

Gus missed her; he missed all of his associates. As he began the walk towards the nearby stables set beside the pumpkin patch, Hopkins came swooping in from above, squeaking hungrily.

"Salutations Mr. Hopkins," Gus welcomed cheerfully, "returned f'some more pumpkin?"

The bat squeaked several times, circling around Gus's spiky hair. When Gus held out his arm at full length, Hopkins landed onto Gus's sleeve; his small claws hooked into the fabric. The bat hung casually upside down, waiting for his treat.

Retrieving slices of raw pumpkin meat, he held it close to Hopkins impish features before turning around the wooden fence closing off the patch. Already the aroma of the stables clouded his senses and single orange chocobo lay lazily on it's belly.

"Neuroreceptors are fully charged, Pumpkin," Gus called out to the chocobo, "it is time t'make a journey towards Limsa Lominsa. We've pumpkins t'check! T'sooner t'better f'all Eorzea; they're cravin' pumpkins... I can sense it!"

Where the Pumpkins Have Gone.

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes