Festival Encourages Cuteness, Strangeness

The Festival of Cuteness, one of the official SpinDizzy holidays established by Mayor Beltrami and Deputy Mayor Portia, falls on the third Tuesday of June.  This year’s Festival fell on June 15, and was marked by two events: an impromptu picnic on the Rose Shore held by Mayor Jaxen, and a party in Meliora Park hosted by BunnyHugger.

Guests at BunnyHugger’s party included Chitter, fluffy, Pauly, Nyni, Jaxen, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Bri, Sally, Nigel, Zen, Xin, Roofus_roo, Ali, PatchO’Black, Jim, Garrison, Beltrami, Fuzzy, Dragoncat, Austin, WhyteShadow, Azure, Claude, Endy, and Gilead.

fluffy, in its plaid cabbit form.

Punch and sugar cookies shaped like animals and flowers were provided by the host, and Ali, fox, served as DJ, spinning cute music suggested by partygoers.  Many guests had on unusually cute outfits, though some were cute enough just being their normal selves.

Near the beginning of the party, BunnyHugger’s robotic dinosaur, Xenophon Raptor, arrived and began fulfilling one of its two functions, that of methodically petting small creatures that it judges adorable.  (The other is serving tea.)  It spent most of the night working its way through the crowd, petting one cute person until its sensors picked out another nearby to switch to.  Xenophon conspicuously did not pet Nigel, who was in the form of a “bunnyena,” a creature the size and general shape of a rabbit with hyena-like features.  Nigel was visibly confused by this, remarking that “I must be especially stealthy.”

When Fuzzy, alleged marsh rabbit, arrived, Chitter, squirrel, greeted him by pointing to Nigel and saying, “Looks like you have a friend,” evidently implying a similarity between Nigel’s bunnyena form and Fuzzy’s species.  Fuzzy seemed to agree with this, saying, “It is good to have family around.”  Later, despite his physical aversion to cuteness, Fuzzy changed into a costume appropriate for the occasion: a plush velveteen rabbit suit.

At one point the discussion turned to what the least cute species is.  Azure, fox, said, “While I wouldn’t normally admit this, there are things less cute than reptiles,” and offered axolotls as an example.  BunnyHugger replied that “I think you would be hard pressed to find something less cute than the house centipede,” adding that she would rank them “even below zombie hyenas,” though Azure still maintained that axolotls are less cute.  WhyteShadow, triple-Andurusian, admitted ignorance as to the appearance of a house centipede, so Nigel helpfully explained that “They look like someone, uh, picked a bit of hair off a brush, Shadow, set it on the counter, and suddenly the bits of hair were actually legs and the things moves off with a motion like a breeze through a grain.”

A highlight of the evening came when Beltrami, balloon space roo, assisted by Roofus_roo, fairy spacey princess roo, used her lifeweaving abilities to revert PatchO’Black, jellicle cat, in age.  Together they created a pinwheel of blue fire that shed its energy over PatchO’Black.  As the pinwheel spun, PatchO’Black shrank and became younger, until he was a kitten version of himself.

A vote was held for awards in three categories: Cutest Costume, Cutest Morph, and Cutest Performance.  Several people, including the host, remarked that the voting was difficult because of the large number of people who participated enthusiastically.  The awards were given out in a short ceremony on Thursday, June 17.

In the Cutest Costume category, first place went to Roofus_Roo for her fairy spacey princess attire. Second place was a tie between Skyler, cartoon bunny, for his footie pajamas, and BunnyHugger, for her blazer and slacks “professor” outfit. (She explained that she was testing the theory that nonanthros wearing clothes are intrinsically cute.) Honorable mention went to fluffy, who took on the form of a plaid cabbit for the evening, although more people seemed to vote for it in the morph category.

In the Cutest Morph category, the vote was very scattered.  Nyni took first place for her Breezie morph, fluffy came in second for its plaid cabbit, and Nigel took third with his bunnyena.  Honorable mentions were given to Zen, who became a heart-eyed mouse, Beltrami, who was a balloon space roo, Gilead, who was an otter cub, and Roofus_roo.

Nyni also came out on top of the Cutest Performance category for her whimsical, sparkly antics as a Breezie.  Claude, LOLcat, took second place for his kittenish charm, and there was a tie for third between fluffy, who was in fine cabbit form, and Xenophon.  BunnyHugger seemed surprised by Xenophon’s placing, calling him the “dark horse” contender.  Xenophon refused to take his award certificate, stating, “I do not need paper.”