[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.

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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

[rawiron]

"Th- the n- nightmare," said Lin, and now his gaze was on Jackie and didn't look to be moving away any time soon. "What was th- that l- like, fighting him? What happened? Where did you go?"

[jinzhong]

Jackie nodded solemnly. Now he has Lin's attention, if not his respect. "It was...I don't really know how to describe it," he admitted. "He took whatever you were most afraid of, whatever you thought you couldn't ever deal with, and turned it against you. And he made me fight my friends. I'm just glad they were stronger than me..."

[rawiron]

"But where d- did you go?" Lin persisted with some scale of morbid fascination. "You all just off and d- disappeared for a year. Where'd you go?" Then he paused. "What d- do you mean, 'made you fight your friends'?"

[jinzhong]

Jackie shrugged. "The Dreaming. It was before Evastelei merged the planes, so. We didn't even know we were away that long. Mostly we thought it was a few days. And then we all woke up..."

At Lin's other question, he grimaced. "Man...so like, there were some of us who were, I dunno, psychically bonded to the hatchlings. So the Big Bad pretended he was really Asti and tricked some of us into gettin' back doors put in our heads. Didn't last too long, since he didn't get all of us. But it coulda been way worse, if he did."

[rawiron]

Lin stared. "Th- the n- n- n- nightmare was--th- the Great T- Turtle?" he asked weakly. There had been rumours, of course, there were always rumours--and that broadcast on the network only the most courageous or foolish of kedan had followed. Somehow, it had never quite sunk in, or been put so openly. It had been something no one wanted to say, even knowing also that the turtle under their feet was unresponsive. "I heard, I just d- didn't ... Um."

His hair started to fade from purple to something else and Lin brought himself up with a start, scowling and blushing and setting it right. "What's th- this about merging th- the planes?" he asked brusquely. "What d- do you know about th- that?"

It was impossible to notice, but again, it was one of those things no one talked about. The planes were the planes. They didn't go around changing. Much. Not without someone doing the changing, anyway.

Jackie's being Basil Exposition these days, eh?

[jinzhong]

"Yeah," Jackie said grimly, looking down at the shell beneath their feet. "We don't really know much else. But maybe he's still in there. You know. The real one. Gotta have hope, right?"

The inadvertent shapechange barely fazed Jackie. After so much time spent in Keeliai, he'd probably start to get weirded out if someone didn't change their appearance every few minutes. "Not a whole lot. All I know is that's how come she managed to bring us back. I dunno. It was a lot of information, I dunno if I'm even making sense of it right."

[rawiron]

"You haven't really made s- s- sense of anything," Lin pointed out with the type of irritability born more from discomfort. "What happened t- to her, anyway? How d- d- did she--Uh. Yeah. How?"

There'd been rumours. She went away with the Foreigners, and when they came back a year later she was dead. No one, as far as Lin remembered, had asked any of the Foreigners directly.

[jinzhong]

"That's because it doesn't even make a whole lotta sense to me, man," Jackie said, quite reasonably. "I'm not one of those magic users, you know? I don't know what all happened there, and I didn't want to ask Milyn. She seemed pretty upset."

[rawiron]

"Well, why d- don't you t- tell me what d- doesn't make sense and maybe I can figure it out," Lin pointed out. There had to be more to it than 'I think' and 'I guess'. Right? Even people who didn't know what was going on remembered some of the details, surely?