[EVENT] Bonfire Night

[ironwood]

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!

Comments

[wrathfulkhan]

"That's good," Gene says. Akito may notice that he looks a little more grown-up, not in stature necessarily, but certainly in mien. His little trip back home and the attendant anxiety, not to mention his negotiation with the family heads, has tempered him somewhat.

"At least you're better suited for the weather now," he says, indicating Akito's new coat.

[akito]

He's definitely aged, but in a way that Akito assumes maturity rather than puberty. It's none of his business though - things happen and people change. If Gene wants to tell him about it he's free to, but Akito knows better than to pry.

"Ah, um. Yeah! It was expensive, but a good investment."

[wrathfulkhan]

The funny thing is - he'd probably tell Akito most of it, if he asked.

"It looks expensive. Did you get it at the landfall?" Gene had gotten some basic supplies, but hadn't been preoccupied with shopping.

[akito]

Akito nods, nudging the ground with the toe of his boot. "It wasn't as expensive as it could have been. Because I'm so small they gave me a discount, since they wouldn't have to use nearly as much fabric."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene nods, smiling a little. Akito is tiny, for his age. Which reminds him-- "Yeah, you're compact. Serves you well, I bet, and not just because you get discounts."

He breathes out, watching the steam his breath creates in the cold air. "I'm glad you're making friends." I'm not sure if I can count myself among them.

[akito]

"It does help," he admits. "People are more accepting when they look at you and see something small and helpless." From the look on Akito's face it seems like he isn't entirely fond of this assumption, but accepts it. "Kedan that don't know me usually assume I'm one of them now, and then the ones that don't - like the Metalworkers at Zanru's company, ne? A bunch of them treat me really nice, and a bunch of them tolerate my presence there."

It's... nice. He knows that he isn't truly accepted as a Metalworker; oftentimes he feels like they're simply indulging him, or treating him like the resident mascot, but it's... They look at him. They look at him and acknowledge his existence, and many of them will answer questions he has about their culture.

"If I keep working hard, even more kedan will tolerate me being here."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene wishes he could say the same. Whenever he's looked small and helpless, been small and helpless, he's been manipulated and exploited and abused. He does not count on the kindness of strangers. "It's a good asset to have," he says. "Even if it's not what you actually are. Having people underestimate you...it's useful. If obnoxious."

He frowns, thinking. "You shouldn't just be tolerated. I'm glad they treat you well, though. Perhaps I'll pass that on to Tony. It's not like the Metalworkers hate all Foreigners, after all. Just him." And that makes him laugh, a little bit, in combined amusement and resignation at his boyfriend's plight. He is eternally amused that - for now, at least - he's not the one everyone hates anymore.

It's a nice feeling, really.

[akito]

He hums, agreeing. "It's pretty funny when their assumptions are wrong." It happens to Akito so often he can't help but find the humour in it. "If they don't think I'm kedan, they think I'm a girl, or that I'm a child, or sometimes a mix of more than one."

Okay, yeah. He might be snickering a little bit, but sobers after a moment. "Being tolerated is more than I hoped for." Akito purses his lips, withholding a frown. "They acknowledge my presence more than most of the Foreigners do. It's nice to be reminded that I have substance to me. Why would you tell Tony though?"

[wrathfulkhan]

Well...he wasn't gonna say anything about it, Akito, but you do kind of look like a preteen girl sometimes. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

"I'd tell him to prove that he just needs to work a little harder and that the Metalworkers aren't as bad as he thinks they are." Tony's apologized and bowed and scraped and made an utter begging fool of himself, in Gene's opinion, but it still hadn't undone the harm caused by barging in and demanding his things back like an entitled little shithead in the first place. "Let me know if they give you any trouble, okay? I know things are...difficult...among the Foreigners." He's had a hard enough time getting them to listen to him, and Gene can at least pass for an adult. Damned smug immortals, thinking they know everything.

[akito]

"If who gives me trouble?" Akito honestly can't tell if Gene means the kedan or the Foreigners.

[wrathfulkhan]

Honestly, Gene's not quite sure who he'd meant either.

He shrugs. "Anyone. I don't want the kedan pushing any of us around, and I don't want any of the Foreigners, especially the newer ones, to think you might be an easy target if things go to shit. We're a volatile bunch." Yeah, the whole thing with Vergil and Valdis is still weighing heavily on his mind.

[akito]

Akito frowns, considering. "I already promised Meisheng-san I would let her know," he says. "And Zanru-san won't let any of the Metalworkers bother me, either."

In short Gene, he's good.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene shrugs. "The offer stands. Consider it insurance. In case they fail to come through for you, for whatever reason."

He hesitates before saying the next thing. "I want you to know you have an ally. Even if you don't particularly want one."

[akito]

"Allies are always good to have," he offers, brows furrowed. He never said he didn't want allies. He's just chosen to be more careful with who he trusts knowledge of his personal life with now.

A pause, then: "Um, thanks."

[wrathfulkhan]

Yeah, well. You see someone's evil bro-dad abusing them, you don't really get to walk back the 'knowledge of personal life' permission slip.

"Yeah. Don't mention it." He stares into the fire for a few moments, trying to warm up. "I hope I didn't offend you. Earlier."

[akito]

"...Hm? When?" He tries to think of anything he had been offended by tonight and falls short.

[wrathfulkhan]

"Before. When we had tea." He hadn't thought anything was wrong at the time, but he had noticed Akito's demeanor towards him cooling.

[akito]

Akito's relaxed posture returns to something more stiff and closed off, though most of it is hidden behind the layers of his jacket. "Well, you did."

[wrathfulkhan]

Fuuuuck, this is hard to say.

"Then I apologize," he says, and sounds sincere. Probably because he is. He'd had to force himself to acknowledge that Akito's trauma was not his own and therefore not his business. If he'd deluded himself into thinking Kaito had been truly thinking of his best interests, then who was he to shatter that illusion? He knew well the value of safe illusions. Especially these days, when there was so much he now knew that he'd prefer to forget. "It was not my intention to pry, and I won't do it again."

[akito]

Akito takes his time thinking over Gene's apology. People apologizing to him... Well, it's not something that Akito can remember happening to him all that frequently, so it's strange.

"I... Look, I know Kaito-nii is... What he did was awful, and I'm not excusing what he did." He runs a hand over his face, frustrated, because he hates talking about this but he wants Gene to at least understand where he's coming from, even if he disagrees with it. He owes that much both to his father and to Gene, for at least trying to care. "It was... It was really fucked up, okay? Oniichan is messed up, but I understand why. So I forgive him for it, because it's no use dwelling on that kind of thing. I haven't forgotten, but I forgive him."

Akito runs a glove hand over his face again, finding himself exhausted just trying to talk about that. "I really wish you didn't see him in the Dreaming, because I don't like... People look you at you differently when they know you've been treated like that even if they don't realize it." A sigh, and: "And I'm only trying to explain it to you because you seem to care about what you saw instead of just... Ignoring it."

[wrathfulkhan]

There's a lengthy pause while Gene processes what Akito has told him. At least it's not blind defense of Kaito and what he did - which was really what had agitated him in the first place. Doesn't mean he wouldn't still bash Kaito's head in with a crowbar if he ever showed up, but at least now he'd take care to do it out of Akito's sight. "Okay," he says finally, and then laughs a little. "You have far more forgiveness in you than I ever could."

He stares into the flames before he speaks again, his tone more subdued. "Of course I care." His stomach twists at the realization that this meant most people in Akito's life hadn't. But then again, neither had most of the people in Gene's. "I wish nobody had seen what Malicant did to me in the Dreaming," he says. And nobody but Tony had seemed to care, save for Wreath running his mouth to the detective after they'd all awoken, which counted less as care and more as busybodying to Gene.

Oh. He gets it now.

Even Tony's concern hadn't been able to salve the wound to his pride - what did Stark know about that kind of trauma, with his supportive family and friends? What did he know of being beaten and hurt for daring to exist, daring to speak?

That's part of why he'd been so concerned about Akito. The pair of them were lifetime members in a tragic little club.

[akito]

"Life is too short to dwell on revenge or hatred."

He tosses another small handful of powder into the flames - whatever was left from the bag in his other pocket - and watches it turn bright blue. Sighing, he looks down at his hands and brushes them clean of any residue. "At least, that's what I believe."

[wrathfulkhan]

"I wish I could think that way," Gene says, and watches the fire turn blue. "Hatred and revenge...they were what sustained me for so long. Kept me alive."

He exhales. "It's a hard habit to break. It's like a drug."

[akito]

"I wouldn't know," he says after a moment of thought. "Papa was the same way - driven by the need for revenge, and making sure what happened to him didn't happen to anyone else. It was only a few months before I woke up here that he changed."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene winces. He doesn't want to be anything like Kaito, even superficially. He knows he's hurt people. He just wants to fix what he's done wrong.

"It's...not a way you want to be."