Nights of the Dead

Dear Diary,

I hate Nights of the Dead.

It's not the carnivals ripe with pockets for picking.
It's not the rampant use of masks and disguises, which make Briganding OH so EASY (especially when dressed as a Swash haha!)
It's certainly not the influx of vampires (oh Mayong!).
It's not all the marshmallows and chocolate (yum!).
It's not the ghosts and ghouls and goblins and zombies - though the ghouls and zombies leave my swords icky.
It's not the spiders or the snakes (ok, the snakes are not my favorite).
It's not the scary stories (LOVE the scary stories!).
It's not the haunted houses (wee! a thrill!).
It's not bobbing for frosted apples (trolls always win with their big mouths, though).


It's that *I* am often the source of the celebration.


Turns out I'm dead an awful lot.

Why "Vegetarianism" is not a good option in Norrath

I decided to stop eating meat.  I was starting to feel we were getting a little crazy with the carnivorous inclinations as it was, but after seeing a gnome battle down a live fae in a tavern one night, I decided I was done with it.  I mean, really, it was like watching a wild haired anaconda stuff a rainbow down its gullet.  After a while, I just couldn't watch (just an fyi, that fae did not STAY down).

I set out to stop eating meat and to become a vegetarian.  The first night, I accidentally ate a Shroomba.

No one told me till too late. I ordered a Portabello Steak and didn't think to ask the origin.  Some enterprising human had yanked him right out of the Faydark.  I felt awful about it.

Well, actually I still feel guilt ridden, because honestly? He was *delicious.*

"Vegetarian," in Norrath may simply refer to "Non-Cow Eating," or, if a Vampire of the current era, Non Human Blood Drinking (but Elves, and especially Wood Elves, are fair game. Druids of any race especially choice. What makes humans get special treatment, I wonder?).  I decided that term was too ...vague...for my tastes.

So I now no longer eat anything that once had eyes.  Including potatoes.  Just in case.  

It didn't have a name, so I just made one up: Eclectitarianism.  Because polite folks would call it "eclectic."  To my face, at least.  "Weird" perhaps to my back. 

Happily, Halfling cuisine, while not exactly high on the health meter, has large amounts of non-sentient ingredients. I've been enjoying butter and sugar soaked dishes from the Baubleshire, and of course, Voleen's.   The non-sentient ingredient shopping in Freeport is sadly limited to acrid coffee and ale, and the ale is even questionable.

I cannot. Will not. Betray for a diet.  

But when the griffin takes a sharp turn and I lose a half dozen pumpkin muffins into the Torrent River? I find myself feeling... a little tempted.  

Thankfully, Windstalker Village has a little shop I can duck into without much hassle and every day more choices are appearing on the tables.  Some enterprising folks have caught on to the idea that not everyone likes dried orc eyeballs, moldy cheese, or rat on a stick, and food export is starting to catch on.   

By the way, just as a side note, as folks might wonder why I don't go to Rivervale... there's really nothing there but honey that hasn't been imported, and I've sworn off Bixie Honey from the Drafling.  The stories coming back on collection methods give me the shivers: hives and combs trampled, Bixies slaughtered, living quarters looted, pollen corrupted.   There's a Pollen Sniffing problem in neutral city schools among some of the less "enlightened" teachers.

Anyway, a typical day for an Eclectitarian:

Breakfast:

Tea + Windstalker Bovine Milk (we don't want to talk about the other options) 

Oats + vanilla + Non Drafling Bixie Honey (harvested by Best Bixies at a Qeynosian Hive only accessible from inside the city.  It's a Bixie Run and Operated Bixie Honey hive. Voleen gets her honey there, just in case you want to support sustainable and ethical honey harvests)

Snack:

Cheese Onion & Spinach Quiche 

Lunch:

Rice rolls from Shin Village Sushi with assorted seasonal vegetables (cucumber, avocado, zucchini).

Vegetable Tempura

Green Tea

Snack:

Apple Pastry

Dinner:

Wine (NOT tier dal blood wine)

Sauteed eggplant, or non-sentient mushroom, over pasta with a white garlic sauce

Garlic bread 

Side Salad + vinaigrette

Dessert:

ANYthing from Voleen's.  You can't really fail with one of her pies...jumjum, apple, you name it.

Everfrost (fair trade) Coffee

Not too shabby, eh?  When you get around Maj Dul and find some of the more "Eclectic" food stands, you can get some really interesting combinations as well.  They love their spicy food!

Anyway, I wasn't too sure how long I could keep this up, but given the options for meat in Norrath and the odds of it having been off a diseased animal, dropped on the floor, licked/nibbled/gnawed/chewed before reaching the grill and other assorted horrible options that leave one feeling "funny" later, it really wasn't that hard of a "lifestyle" choice to make, other than having to go out of my way a bit for ingredients.  

Thank goodness for mail order and connections, though!