Every Tuesday, as part of the initial Alongame project, we held ‘supper streams’ – one-hour streams that mimic the world’s folk traditions of community suppers where those present share food, tell stories, perform rituals, sing songs and more.
22nd June’s supper stream
The stream can still be watched here.
This stream focused on remembrance and a send-off for a mutual Alongame friend who was leaving the area and being given a farewell at this village supper. Through some divination, we realised it was the local Megahorse saddler, who typically smells of worked leather. We carried out the tradition of The Greatcoat: a coat made for someone at a time of change (often leaving a place), created out of different pieces of clothing gifted by their friends. The Greatcoat represents safety and protection in Alongame, and is often the most treasured of items of clothing.
The Greatcoat made at the supper included the leather soles of shoes as elbow patches, a scarf as the waist tie, coins as epaulettes, and a trim with the message of ‘here’s to the oak tree’.
The inside of the coat was a patchwork quilt made of the following squares, gifted by some of the supper guests.
We also explored some older traditions of Alongame, following how one changed over time. Initially, it was a tradition to cook sweet potatoes at the end of a relationship (on a fire in which items from that relationship were burning), reflecting on it whilst you cooked and ate them to give closure, warmth and comfort.
Then, the tradition became one of spending a full night, sunset to sunrise, mourning the end of the relationship and taking your time over the process. This is also linked to the idea of root vegetables being in the dark and never seeing the sun, so being cooked and eaten before the sun touches them.
And the latest version of the tradition involves cooking the potatoes in water by boiling, so that they can be cooked with many other vegetables. This was also a shift in the activity becoming less solitary, and also shorter (since boiling vegetables for *a full night* would not be something anyone wanted to eat).
And, of course, we created a Long Table poem…
As the paragraph Twitch made it into:
The area that leads to offstage The fresh sawdust I’ll snack on this small bag of candied almonds on the starlit walk home, and over the next few days in quiet moments Blue, strangely enough. Light, fragile, the kind that blows weightless in the wind A safe journey home and a hand to hold Fresh sorrel and elderflower syrup muddled with tonic and a slice of apple in the glass Flickering, but never for long The chair where a good friend is diagonally across from me, ever in my peripheral A faceless woman pointing over my shoulder Many shadows for whispers The safe space formed by the arms of an old friend Health and happiness for all my friends
As individual lines:
The area that leads to offstage
The fresh sawdust
I’ll snack on this small bag of candied almonds on the starlit walk home, and over the next few days in quiet moments
Blue, strangely enough.
Light, fragile, the kind that blows weightless in the wind
A safe journey home and a hand to hold
Fresh sorrel and elderflower syrup muddled with tonic and a slice of apple in the glass
Flickering, but never for long
The chair where a good friend is diagonally across from me, ever in my peripheral
A faceless woman pointing over my shoulder
Many shadows for whispers
The safe space formed by the arms of an old friend
Health and happiness for all my friends
15th June’s supper stream
The stream can still be watched here.
This supper stream focused on some celebrations happening at the recently-rebuilt Barnhall (which had been damaged in a storm). In playing The Wandering Gander, a game using the traditional goose deck to build up the smells, sounds, tastes, sights and touches of a place, we discovered we were partially celebrating the marriage of two queens. We also found out that it was tradition for a celebration like a marriage to last a day and a night, that all guests are gifted with a hat as part of it, and everyone was dancing on a dance floor made of the old barn’s door.
We made traditional bunting – cut out of maps of local areas in Alongame, into mushroom, crown, megahorse-shoe and flower shapes, with messages of well-wishing written on them. It was during this we unearthed a lot of megahorse lore: it takes multiple people to shoe them, resulting in the phrase ‘solo-shoer’ for someone who typically bites off more than they can chew, and the saying ‘takes a village to shoe a megahorse’. It’s also very good luck for a megahorse to appear at a wedding, if initially startling.
We also played another Long Table, creating the following celebratory-themed poem:
As the paragraph Twitch made it into:
thunderous, incredulous, marvelous, joyous, jaunty, jazzy drink and be merry out of one glass, the zest of lemon and tang of fish The warmest, sweetest cinnamon It tastes of the light between leaves in a forest, Zingy Peace and Strong Roots! The thumping of feet and reeling of stringed instruments A tight hug, that we’re comfortable to hold for a long time To health and love I raise a toast to the newlyweds, may their union be as harmonious as the sun and moon They have no shadow may her bloom follow your sunbright, may your tides draw to her moonlight light lingering, small wings sparkle To storms and their tamers. Dark coffee and bitter lemon To your health and happiness! Two woolen scarves Watch the sun set and remember our friends. Earthy and bright, with an aftertase of deep comfort The richest flavor, a promise of future and continuing contentment
As individual lines:
thunderous, incredulous, marvelous, joyous, jaunty, jazzy
drink and be merry out of one glass, the zest of lemon and tang of fish
The warmest, sweetest cinnamon
It tastes of the light between leaves in a forest
Zingy Peace and Strong Roots! The thumping of feet and reeling of stringed instruments
A tight hug, that we’re comfortable to hold for a long time
To health and love
I raise a toast to the newlyweds, may their union be as harmonious as the sun and moon
They have no shadow may her bloom follow your sunbright, may your tides draw to her moonlight light lingering, small wings sparkle
To storms and their tamers.
Dark coffee and bitter lemon
To your health and happiness!
Two woolen scarves
Watch the sun set and remember our friends.
Earthy and bright, with an aftertase of deep comfort
The richest flavor, a promise of future and continuing contentment
We finished with the traditional supper song, and left, tired but happy from the celebrations.
Unfortunately 8th June’s stream was cancelled due to severe internet problems.
1st June’s supper stream
If you’d like to watch the stream, there’s a recording of it here.
In creating a map of Alongame (the area overlapping where we imagined ourselves to be having supper together in our world), we discovered the existence of cave-geese, large and formidable geese that live in subterranean cave-systems beneath a mountain. We know that they hoard golden eggs, perhaps in an attempt to attract and hoard friends, but little else is known of them.
A ‘long table’ poem was written – drawn from an Alongame tradition where everyone at a table draws a question from a hat and gives their answer, the stream of responses building to create a communal poem. This was ours:
As the paragraph Twitch chat made it into:
hello; here’s to present company and absent friends Warm, inviting, comfortable. Appreciation and wine. gathering with friends, feeling safe and welcome Hello There, and Idyllic Hullo you, books, sugar, and time. “Hello, have you eaten? Let me get you a drink.” The barnhall smells of baked goods and warm spices, savory and sweet Bubbles, for use at any time Are you hungry? Pine and rain to come Peace, Love and Spit in Your Eye
As the individual lines:
hello; here’s to present company and absent friends
Warm, inviting, comfortable. Appreciation and wine.
gathering with friends, feeling safe and welcome
Hello There, and Idyllic
Hullo you, books, sugar, and time.
“Hello, have you eaten? Let me get you a drink.”
The barnhall smells of baked goods and warm spices, savory and sweet
Bubbles, for use at any time
Are you hungry? Pine and rain to come Peace, Love and Spit in Your Eye
We also used the Alongame ritual ‘Deck of Bridges’ to divine a problem someone in Alongame was having, and send some help their way. We learned of a gosherd near the end of their life, who’s also responsible for the burial rituals that take place in nearby mushroom fields. The gosherd wants to train an apprentice so that they can be properly laid to rest when the time comes, but they are running out of time due to their age. We tried to help by growing the mushroom’s roots deeper so they pierced the veil between Alongame and our world, and the slower-moving time in our world would leech into that part of Alongame, essentially giving the gosherd more time (we’d already learned from the map that there was only a thin barrier between Alongame and this world in this area).
We had to wait for a sign to know the help had worked; someone at the supper had to see a goose out in the world. However, on Wednesday morning the message was sent around that someone had, so our help has been received and worked.
Alongame 