tushanshu_logs | Event | Summer Jubilee

Entry tags:

Event | Summer Jubilee | June 22nd-28th

Characters: ALL! With special guest appearance by Asti
Date: June 22nd-28th, 2014
Location: Keeliai, all sectors
Situation: To celebrate the six month hatching days of the baby turtles that coincides with the arrival of summer, the kedan are throwing a city wide party! And Asti gifts everyone with a happy dream to make up for the badness plaguing Keeliai lately.
Warnings/Rating: TBA

While the kedan have a complicated and extensive system of writing, a good portion of their folklore is oral tradition and there's one prominent tale that's being told over and over this week. Small variances in the tale do occur from telling to telling but the core of the story goes like this:

Long ago before there were any people in the world, the First Family was made in the sky. Sun, the Mother and Moon, the Father were happy but desired children of their own. They watched all the creatures in the oceans, on the land and in the air and wished they could also have a family but they could not, for they didn't know how and so they were sad. They drifted apart, with Mother the Sun only coming out for part of the time and Father the Moon sometimes disappearing from the sky.

Not wanting to see them so saddened, the creatures in all the lands and seas and air gathered together and searched their respective domains for children to give into the sky. From the four corners of the world they came with four children: one for the Dawn, one for the Midday, one for the Dusk and one for the Night.

Mother the Sun and Father the Moon were overjoyed! They thanked the creatures of the world and promised they would never again abandon their places in the sky and became the First Family. And for a time, all was well.

But Dawn and Midday and Dusk and Night grew older and, as children are wont to do, started asking when they could leave their home in the sky to begin their own families. Their parents were afraid of feeling so alone again if that happened so each year they said, "next year, next year". Eventually the children grew tired of this answer and so, sneaking into the place of the Stars where everything that was known was kept and they cut the end off of Time.

The next time that their mother and father went to deny then, the children cried "You cannot say next year, for next year does not exist anymore!"

And the Sun and Moon were afraid that if the children went away, then Time would indeed run out and so they agreed that their children could have families of their own, if they stayed and became the Second Family. The children agreed and even today, it is said that they are still waiting for the end of Time to grow back so they can visit other places without everything ending.

OOC INFO & LINKS
Subheaders are for various parts of the event and the rest of the post (not in sub headers) is for general mingling and tagging! Questions relating to the event go HERE.

Adopt-A-Foreigner | The Ritual | Dream A Little Dream | Asti's Blessings | Barbecue | OOC Post

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The awkward hopping and waving instantly brings his friend Casey to mind, which is more of a good thing than a bad one. But he really doesn't know the term 'waterbending'? Leo had thought he'd glimpsed the telltale similarities to T'ai chi ch'uan in those brief motions, but maybe he'd been mistaken...

But then there's the fact that he'd actually manipulated the water. He's pretty sure he's not wrong here.

"Sorry; that's just the term my friends used for it. Do you know someone named Korra? Or maybe... Toph?"

There was an instant change in Wan's attitude at the mention of Korra. His smile faded into a serious expression and he chose to sit down so he could finish putting his shoes on. He didn't respond until he was done with that, not wanting to be distracted.

After he was finished, he stood again and smiled softly, pleasantly, but with hesitance. Wan had only met his reincarnation the day before. He liked her, but it was still so very new. "Yeah, I know Korra. We met yesterday. She didn't say she was friends with a Turtle Spirit."

Leo notes his change in demeanor, but remains respectfully silent as the man finishes his task. So he and Korra only met yesterday... Leo was hoping they'd already known each other, but either way he's still willing to bet that they're from the same world.

Then he processes the last bit of that sentence, and he has to bite back a smile. Politely, he dips forward into a bow.

"You honor me, but I am no spirit. My name is Leonardo. Korra is a good friend of mine."

Wan returned the bow, "It's good to meet you, Leonardo."

When he straightened, he put a hand on his hip, looking him over, "Are you sure you aren't a spirit? You look like some of the animal spirits from my home."

Though Raava probably would have noticed if Leonardo was an actual spirit and she wasn't reacting at all. Then again... Wan wasn't sure how active she would be separate from him him now that they were one. She still spoke to him, but it wasn't like having her right there, next to him.

"I'm sure," he says, letting a bit of that smile escape as he adjusts his katana into the crook of his arm. The topic of his being a mutant is never a comfortable one, especially when talking with a human, but he's learned to take it in stride during his stay here.

In fact, it's more surprising these days when someone does call attention to it - most people just get used to all sorts of strange-looking nonhumans running around after living in Keeliai for a while. Leo returns that look-over, his head tilting thoughtfully to the side. "If you don't mind me asking... are you new here?"

Well, if he wasn't a spirit, he wasn't a spirit. He didn't look like a human who'd gone and gotten possessed by one either. Wan was curious about him, if he was related to the Great Turtle whose back they were standing on, but Leo had asked a question and he knew he should at least answer that before asking more of his own.

Wan wasn't a completely awkward turtleduck, just a mostly awkward one.

"I am," he said with a nod. "I got here yesterday morning. Early. It was... a little rough."

"It usually is," he agrees, his smile and posture relaxing a bit more. It's been a year and a half since he woke up in the waters of the ocean and endured a six-hour cart ride all the way to Keeliai, but 'rough' is a pretty good descriptor of the whole process. Although... that's not how new Foreigners arrive anymore, is it? At least not the six-hour cart ride part.

Still, at least Leo didn't have to wake up to Evandau. Yikes. He'd take the stuffy cart.

"I've only felt that drained once before," Wan's smile faltered and he looked away sadly before he managed to recover. His eyes went to Leo's swords and then to the fountain and back to Leo, "Were you going to do the ritual? I can wait until you're done if you want to talk more."

Leo almost frowns at that sad aside - a bad memory, he's guessing - but puts it quickly from his mind when the man speaks again. He looks down at his katana, taking them and settling them back in his grip. Then he brings his gaze back up, nodding solemnly.

"I am. Thanks; I'll be back." He gives another quick bow and turns on his heel towards the fountain, but stops at the last moment, glancing back over his shoulder. "Sorry - I don't think I caught your name."

It was a bad memory. One that ended with him waking to find one of his oldest friends dead at the hands of another friend. And Raava, so small after her efforts to help him that she fit in the palms of his hands.

"My name is Wan," he said with a nod to the side. "I'm going to go wait over there. Where it isn't so crowded."

Leonardo gives him a nod in return - an approving one, because crowds aren't really his thing, either - and then turns to approach the fountain, his katana gripped carefully in his hands. As he approaches the basin, he rubs his thumb over their tsuka - one wrapped in the blue of his mask, the other a dark, aged brown. The ritual may call for only one item, but a swordsman's weapons are an extension of himself; together, they create one whole. Without the other, neither sword alone is complete. To perform the ritual with only one katana would be going against the very nature of what they represent.

So, carefully, Leonardo reaches down and lowers both swords into the fountain, the cool water numbing his hands as they slip beneath the shimmering surface. He holds there for five seconds, ten, a few more; then he lifts them up, water dripping from the scabbards in small streams. Leo maneuvers them into the crook of his arm once more, clasps his hands, and bows his head in front of the fountain in respectful silence.

After a few beats, he drops his hands, nods quietly to the kedan waiting for her turn behind him, then turns away and starts off. He'll have to do this twice more to complete the ritual. As he ties the scabbards back onto their strap, he wanders in the direction Wan had indicated earlier, keeping an eye out for him.

Wan had found a not-so-crowded spot where a small water-road sat between two buildings. It was barely big enough for two normal boats to sit side by side and went relatively unused. So the sidewalk that butted up against it went just as unused. Wan sat cross-legged, hands in his lap, looking down into the water at some fish that had decided to mill about nearby.

He noticed Leo by his reflection and looked up to wave at him and then wave him over.

Leo catches motion in his periphery and turns to see Wan waving him over. With a returning smile, he finishes tying the katana and hefts the strap over his head, settling them back onto their usual place over his shell.

"Sorry about that," he says as he approaches, sitting in a similar cross-legged stance. "Guess I still have to do it two more times before nightfall."

"Only if you want to," he replied pleasantly. "You don't have to do it at all if you don't want to. I don't have any reason to object, but I'm sure someone does. And I'm sure the Kedan would understand if you did."

"After all the hospitality they've been showing us, it wouldn't feel right," Leonardo muses. His smile thins and he glances down into the water, where fish make lazy, swirling laps beneath the surface. "Besides... at a time like this, it's good to appreciate the things that mean most to you."

Not the material objects, of course - but the memories and people connected to them. Leo might not fully understand the ritual, but he knows better than anyone the powerful spiritual resonance that can be found in simple objects.

Wan wasn't familiar with the kind of creature Leo was, but he recognized a pained look when he saw it. Or at least he thought he did.

"Do you mean the fight against the Great Enemy we were brought here to aid," he asked, tilting his head down so he could look 'up' at Leo. "...or do you mean something more personal to you."

It's a strange and abrupt topic to be going into with a stranger, but perhaps that's what makes it easier, too. Leonardo cants his head in acknowledgement of the inquiry, considering it carefully. Every soldier in a war has their own battles, their own special enemies... but one's priorities are always the fights that decide who's coming home alive.

"Both," he says after a moment, straightening to meet Wan's gaze. "We each have our own battles - not only the one in front of us. It's knowing which one is the bigger threat that keeps you in the fight."

He ends with a somewhat questioning look towards Wan in return. It sounds like Leo isn't the only one battling his demons this very day.

Wan straightened with Leo, his shoulders squaring as he listened. The look the turtle gave him was clearing one of expectation. Was he hoping for agreement? Or to be told he was wrong?

Well, if it was the second, then Wan would oblige as he replied, "No. I don't think so. It's not knowing what the bigger threat is that keeps me going. It's never been the threat that's kept me moving forward. It's knowing what I could lose if I don't fight. Knowing what I've already lost, and knowing what the world stands to lose if I don't."

He sighed and slid his fingers into the water, managing somehow to not scare the fish off.

"Some threats are bigger than others and taking care of them is important... But if I focus just on those threats, I'll lose sight of what matters more. The people that will be hurt if I don't succeed. If I do that, then I'm just as likely to hurt those people as the enemy I face."

Leonardo closes his eyes as he listens. In a way, it sounds like Wan is agreeing with him - they fight because they have things, people, they have to protect. But whereas Leo will run to meet their enemies halfway across the battlefield, there's something about Wan's phrasing that makes Leo suspect that he fights not because it's in his blood, but because he must.

He's not about to go pushing just to sate his own curiosity over whether he's correct. But Leo knows a person weighed down by the burden of responsibility when he sees one.

"A world is a heavy weight to shoulder," he points out, his tone carefully neutral. Another part of Wan's phrasing - what the world stands to lose - makes him think that there's more going on here than a metaphorical discussion.

"It is," Wan murmured in agreement before smiling. It was a sad smile, one that didn't even try to hide the weight of his own guilt and worry. But it also wasn't forced. It was just as genuinely optimisitc as it was filled with those burdens. He fought because to do otherwise would be ignoring the consequences of his actions. It wouldn't be right or fair to Raava or the rest of the world.

"But it's my responsibility. And it's not a burden I have to carry alone. I hope yours isn't one you have to shoulder yourself."

He gives a quiet huff of laughter, gaze moving down to watch the human's fingers trail through the water. "Not for my lack of trying, believe me."

But it's fond, and that smudges out some of the worry in the lines etched out around his eyes. He's glad to hear Wan is wise enough not to try and shoulder his responsibilities all alone, because it's a dark path to travel down, and it's one Leo often still finds himself gravitating towards. He's just lucky enough to have brothers to stubbornly pull him out of it.

Leonardo glances up at Wan again, this time with a light of solidarity in the somber nod he gives him. "Whoever it is you're fighting for... I can see they're in good hands."

Wan met his eyes but looked away, falling back into that melancholy he'd been fighting all day. Even Raava hadn't been able to pull him out of it entirely with her reassurances. He was the one that had set everything in motion to begin with. It was hard to think of his hands as being good ones. Ones that were getting there? Sure. But without Vaatu sealed away and with Raava bonded to him, tied to his life, it was just difficult to accept.

Even with the proof that things would work out standing in front of him in the form of his reincarnation ten thousand years in the future.

"You sound like Korra," he said softly. "She's someone that knows my future and knows that I succeed. But it hasn't happened for me yet. Actually, I was pulled away to come here in the middle of the most important battle of my own lifetime. I know things turn out fine. She is proof of that, but... I don't know what's wrong with me. It should be enough to make me stop feeling like this, but it's just... not."

All he'd been doing all day was looking for things to distract him so he didn't have to examine it further.

Edited 2014-07-03 04:10 (UTC)

Hm. Being likened to Korra is certainly one of the more flattering comparisons he's heard. The corners of his mouth twitch briefly upward, but then he lets the set of his shoulders fall a little as he continues listening to Wan speak.

"Knowing the future doesn't make the present any less real," he offers gently, though there's an edge of firmness to it. Getting wrapped up in the past is never wise... but focusing too much on the future can be just as bad.

Wan moved his fingers slowly in the water, still somehow not disturbing the fish that swam past before he very carefully said, "Could you tell me about Korra. What is she like? Who she is to you? As both a person and a friend? And do you know Aang?"

"I've never heard of someone named Aang. But Korra..." he trails off, his mouth thinning. Wan seems all right, and the question is innocent enough. "... she's helped my family through some tough spots. She's brave, dependable... loyal. We couldn't ask for a better friend."

He goes quiet after that, inclining his head cautiously. He's not sure why Wan want to know about someone he only met yesterday, but that's as much as he's willing to give.

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