tushanshu_logs | [EVENT] Bonfire Night

[EVENT] Bonfire Night

Characters: ALL!
Date: February 21st
Location: Various.
Situation: It’s cold. Time to cuddle up and make bonfires for the warmth.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

As night falls the city’s lights take something of a unique turn. Instead of being lit by millions of paper lanterns, Keeliai is tonight lit by the flames and warmth of dozens if not hundreds of fires. Some of them are small, not much more than warming hearths in a barrel on a street, but others encompass squares and boulevards.

The fire lighting procession winds through the city’s streets, beginning at the first bonfire in Fire Sector. By the time full night has arrived, that procession is a snake illuminated by dozens of torches, parting from the main parade to light smaller fires in smaller streets. It ends, finally, in Central, in the Courtyard of Public Opinion, whose bonfire is second only to the initiating one in Fire Sector.

In some areas an exchange of goods arises, mostly in terms of woollens and other warm clothes and blankets. Though food is considered a public resource on this occasion, bartering small knickknacks, songs, stories and even other woollen items is not uncommon an exchange.

Meals are shared among kedan and Foreigners, commoners and emissaries--primarily stews, soups and other foods easily baked in the coals of the fires. Everyone brings food, and what isn’t contributed to the pot is nevertheless shared around after preparation. Although some bonfires are markedly wealthier than others, food and shelter is spread around to make sure everyone is safe and warm. No one goes cold and alone on this night.

LINKS
Fire Sector (main bonfire) | Water Sector | Metal Sector | Earth Sector | Wood Sector | Central Keeliai

OOC Notes
The five Bresilykian emissary NPC can be found moving from Sector to Sector and partaking in the various traditions of each, and so can be engaged anywhere, while the Keeliai NPCs generally are staying in their respective areas as detailed below. Please put the name of the NPC you're requesting in the subject line of your tag if you want to interact with them. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Raine eyes the way Genis is shivering, and purposefully directs them closer to one of the larger fires, though she doesn't actually say anything about her intent. The weather lately has been colder than Flanoir, honestly, and here even without the excuse of Celsius' presence affecting the climate.

She's just glad things with her brother are evening out a little.

"There are other sectors we may visit," Raine points out. "Earth is mostly craftspeople, so naturally their interests will be more in the use of the fire than the spectacle." And her tone gentles as she addresses the other part of his statement. "But it is nice, to see everyone coming together like this. Even most of the faction disputes seem to have been forgotten."

Evening out, yes. It's not as if things are back to normal, though at least so long as there's the pretence of things being the way they were back in Aselia, well, he's okay with that. Besides, staying in that Hotel was a bit stuffy, and he's more than willing at this point to get out, especially given that the kedan's attitude was less than stifling.

"Granted, that is nice, but why go out of their way to pretend for one day that everyone's the same when they're just going to go back to the old way tomorrow?" Genis asks, rather weirded out by the whole notion. "I mean, it's not like they can be genuinely earnest about treating everyone equal today, right?"

Things may not return to normal for a while-- or it may be that accepting things now as normal will take a while. Either way, for now Raine will take what she can get.

"I wonder," Raine says, softly, and for a moment that's all the answer she has, and she stares at the fire. "It may be that the spirit of the holiday, such as it is, has lowered everyone's guards in the first place, and it isn't such a stretch from ignoring the problems between them to ignoring what grudge they bear us, as well. Special occasions often do make people more charitable than they would be otherwise."

She wishes she had a better answer than that for him, but anything more falls into the baffling category of 'the nature of people,' which is nowhere near explicable. "I'd like to say it's slowly been getting better in general," Raine adds, reflective, "but I may not be in the best position to tell."

Even if Genis is marginally happy to be able to wander the streets of Keeliai with some amount of reasonable freedom and without too much drama, and even if Genis isn't going to argue with the kedan about their sudden generosity, it still doesn't mean he's not baffled by it. Which is of course rather ironic since Genis is already exemplary of this phenomenon without him even able to see it given his willingness to walk along with Raine. "Maybe, but you'd think that they could just learn their lesson that everyone's not that bad, and then tomorrow it won't just go back to normal, right? Maybe they just feel pressured to be nice to everyone because that's what everyone else seems to be doing."

[R.I.P. Genis' optimism, 2015-2015.]

Genis just sighs widely and looks at the ground. "At least things are getting better. I'd hate to see this place getting worse."

She's thought it before and doubtless the thought will come up again: she is so very, very glad Genis wasn't here before Malicant was defeated.

Raine clasps his shoulder absently, a brief little gesture of reassurance that's almost all she has to offer him right now. "If it were that simple, Sylvarant and Tethe'alla wouldn't have the problems they do," she says, regretful. "Hate takes time to unlearn. But even without the-- the pressure of the holiday, we will make progress. It's not a bad place; everyone's just been through a lot." He knows that, probably, but it bears reiterating till it sinks in.

She's always wanted so much better for Genis than what their world seemed likely to offer them, and she's sorry this is all she's been able to give him so far. At least here the general distaste for outsiders isn't several millennia entrenched.

It does seem that Genis has frequently gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to worlds. For that matter, Raine certainly had as well. As for Genis, he certainly wishes he had been able to take part during the war because monsters were definitely something he knew how to take care of; discriminatory people... much less so.

"I suppose so," Genis replies a little reluctantly. "Even if the people in Iselia ended up sticking up for us after we returned all those months later, it wasn't like everyone went back to liking half-elves afterward. Like that idiot mayor..." Genis can't help but still be angry at him a little for all the stuff he said about him and Lloyd.

"It's just so hard trying to give everyone chance after chance when all they do is just continue to look at you with so much hatred."

Maybe one day Raine will tell him all the details of what Malicant did to them, why it wasn't the usual sort of war. For one, she's almost completely certain that if Genis had been in the Dreaming, Malicant would have manifested as Mithos in one way or another, and that really is something both of them could do without.

"I know," Raine says. "I know." Out of respect for his twelve-year-old sensibilities she does not pull him into a hug where everyone can see, but for a moment she doesn't sound like the adult in charge; she just sounds sad, and tired. Then it's gone, quickly enough it could have been imagined. "But we have to keep trying. At least there aren't any Desians here; that makes our job easier."

And, quietly grumbling: "The less said about the mayor, the better."

Yeah, Genis won't have a problem with dismissing Iselia's mayor or the Desians. As far as he was concerned, the kedan were better than them... though they still were a far cry from being anywhere close to ideal or even tolerable.

"Well, you're right that the Desians are worse, but... if you say so," Genis says, still nonplussed about it. Really, he's not going to get over it until there are solid signs of change, and he's been thrown into things right as the tide was shifting, so it's still going to take time. For the most part, however, he just shakes his head. "It's just exhausting really. Waiting for other people to finally wise up."

But enough of that. Let's move onto other topics of discussion. More important ones. Because Genis' stomach lets him know that something is amiss.

"So do you know if there's any decent food around here? I'm starving."

Her point with the Desians was more that it's easy to conflate them with half-elves. Here they don't have that problem; there's no evil legion of Foreigners to make their reputation that much worse. Just the one murderer.

"I don't disagree with you," Raine says, a little bit ruefully. She knows she's in such a position that she doesn't bear the brunt of it, and even so it still makes her very tired some days.

She is more than happy to move on when Genis indicates. "Everyone's sharing," she says. She had considered trying to cook something to offer, but in the end ran out of time. "Here-- this way, I see someone cooking at that fire." A thought occurs to her. "Did you have a chance to make anything?"

In this case, the kedan should probably be thanking that time was on their side in this case lest they get something like "deconstructed fried strawberry curry on burnt rice" or something equivalently horrible. Genis would of course have his own choice of creative comebacks if he found out she had wanted to make something.

"I figured I might as well make something," Genis says rather smugly. "I managed to borrow the kitchen in the Hotel to make some pescatore with all the ingredients. Some nice spiral pasta with a marinara sauce, complete with salmon, shrimp, squid, octopus, and then Parmesan cheese on top. I'm only sad that I didn't get to have more than a taste of it before I gave it away." In fact, he's pretty sure he saw at least a mob of kedan descending upon it. "I wonder what they'll have here. Though... don't tell me you made something too?"

"It's a shame I missed it," Raine says, a little wistful; her brother's cooking really is wonderful. "And no, I didn't. I wanted to have something to offer, but I ran out of time before I could." And she's starting to think people conspired to keep her out of the kitchen. She attempts to shepherd Genis toward the other fire then, intending to get food for the two of them; it looks like a simple stew the kedan are cooking, nothing complex, but surely warm and hopefully delicious.

"Hey, it's alright. Actually we should be thankful, since otherwise we'd probably be running away from the kedan with torches and pitchforks after you poisoned them," Genis quips. "But I can always make you something back at the Hotel. It reminds me though; I might actually see if I can get a job as a chef here. From what I've heard, the kedan don't seem to have a problem hiring children."

Genis is totally find with stew so long as it's delicious; food doesn't have to be complex or anything amazing to be delicious. He'll gladly take a bowl along with a spoon from the kedan passing it out, and then he'll go huddle by the fire to eat it.

Raine absently swats at him for the dig at her cooking. Her heart's not really in it, but the gesture's more or less reflexive at this point. She can just about pretend things are back to normal, this way. "Yes, that might be a good idea," she agrees. "That you can do the job is what matters, and no one can argue with your cooking."

She snags bowl and spoon for herself as well, murmuring thanks to the kedan, and settles near Genis to eat it, enjoying the peace of the evening and his company.

For that brief moment, everything does seem quite like normal. Well, except that Raine isn't quite as fast as she normally is, and so Genis actually does manage to see it coming, and so he actually half-manages to dodge out of the way. Raine still connects with the hit, though it's still not quite as solid as it would have been ordinarily.

"Hey," Genis complains, but really... he's not complaining that much. In this moment, he too can pretend. He too can pretend that things are just like they were back in Aselia, that life is fine, and that there's been no disruptions in their relationship ever.

Genis looks up to his sister as she sits next to him, and there's a smile on his face. And then back to food.

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[EVENT] Bonfire Night

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