[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

[unetrustworthy]

If they were to start discussing past regrets...she had a list longer than her arm. One that, even in the best of circumstances, she would never be able to change. Because to take away one sin would most likely have involved committing another. And she still would have had her family to think about. Papa and the boys. The whole reason she had done every single thing she had done since the day Michel was born.

"I guess...we have done some good here." Fallen, yes, and gotten back up again enough times to actually Win. "We made this place safer for everyone who still lives here."

[solo_patria]

Sadly true for Enjolras as well. The one thing that could be said of the sort of life both of them lived, under different circumstances admittedly, but still, was that the chances, and the need for some sins were present no matter what. There may be some variation in them, yes, but in the end, they would be sins, and regrets would be regrets. Perhaps it was better to leave them as they were, and yes, to think of what they'd done so far.

He nodded at Midii's words, a little grin crossing his face, as a phrase he hadn't thought about in years, perhaps since 1830, but one his father had often told him in letters when he was about Midii's age and struggling not to be thrown out of a school with priests and masters who disliked him and who he disliked in turn.

"Quau vai souvent en casso, a la fin tuo la becasso." He said, the Occitan Provençal words falling easily from his lips, despite the fact he had not used it in some time. "The turtle who perseveres wins. Given what we've done here, besides survive, I would say that is true. We have done that and sacrificed much to get here, but now, as you point out, we've made it safe."

He thought of the younger people besides Midii, Tony and Sokka, especially those who had arrived after the battle had ended and they'd all woken up. If whatever power that still worked was going to bring children here, then he was glad they'd made it safer, even if he felt badly for the children who had been already here.

He doubted very much that they'd been children for a long time in their homeworlds, those that he thought of, knowing that Midii had certainly not (nor had Gavroche, in Paris), and their service had done a lot to achieve victory, sometimes at a great cost. But, he reasoned, at least for those young people brought here now, things could be safer, better. Enjolras approved of that much, certainly.

"And then there are the kedan." he found himself saying. "I cannot help but marvel at what they have been able to become through what we've done. I wish they liked us better all the same, but still. I take all of this as quite a good sign."

[unetrustworthy]

It wasn't an expression Midii had heard before, but it was...so very, very fitting, given their living Host. She even smiled faintly as she thought of Asti. The baby turtles--though those memories carried the smallest tint of sadness to them--too.

"Do you think things will eventually go back to the way they used to be? With the kedan."

She knew, to a degree, that there had been some form of mind control or repression or something going on that had made them act so much more docile, but even though the haze of magic, they had to remember the good times, right? The way Foreigners had helped them besides battle.

[solo_patria]

In part, why it had occurred to him, as much as Enjolras wondered why he hadn't thought of it much sooner. It might have been more fitting during the war. But then, it still fit, and he returned the smile all the same. Thinking of the way things had been though... Well.

"I suppose I am a little optimistic they will start toward it at some point." He mused, expression thoughtful. "Not all at once, certainly but if they see us doing our parts here, over time, perhaps so. And time does have a habit of passing too. We may yet reach the point that this becomes more of a memory, and the good things we've done have a chance to stand on their own. And surely there are even some now, who remember everything else that has come to pass. I think there is a way, yes."

They surely must somewhere along the line, and Enjolras knew a few from before who didn't seem to hate him now. It was a start, at least.

[unetrustworthy]

She couldn't help grinning a little when he mentioned being optimistic. Between the two of them, it was practically his trademark. The way he spoke, so passionately, of even the most seemingly trivial matters. Because they did matter, in their own ways.

Just like she mattered, in her own way.

"Sometimes...I wish there was a way for them to see what it was like. Before."

Before the final battle, when Foreigners and Kedan lived side-by-side in seeming harmony.

[solo_patria]

Enjolras has retained hope in the future and the ability to see an idealized version of the world he is a part of, yes. It's a thing he's proud he hasn't lost, because, yes. So many things here matter, and so many people.

"A reminder of our past?" Enjolras smiles, nodding. "If only there had been...recordings or something of it. I had a few particular friends among the kedan and they're only...civil now, at best. I do miss being a bigger part of things, working with them for everyone's good, instead of only our own."

It had been nice back then, after all.

[unetrustworthy]

"What about the Network?"

She knew about computers. Even at her young age, in her previous socioeconomic status, there had been minimal opportunities for her to learn. Games, mostly, but also the occasional communication device. Adding to the training she'd received from the Alliance in order to make sure she was fully capable of operating the intel transmitter the way she was supposed to, and it was enough for her to make educated guesses.

"I know we only ever recorded videos to one another, but they're all over the city. There must be something on there we can use, right?"

[solo_patria]

"That may work as well." He agreed.

"Somewhere we should be able to uncover the data. I AM still trying to collect our stories as well, both from the war and immediately before it. So far, I've compiled a few things, but I cannot get a kedan voice to add. If I could find one...things could improve our image here. It's a matter of continuing to try, I suppose. But that IS all hearsay, isn't it? The network would provide a much clearer record. It's a good idea."

[unetrustworthy]

"Have you tried asking the kids?"

The ones her age and younger. They had been some of the last to start resisting against Foreigners, and even then--from what she recalled--only because they were listening to their parents.

Plus, she remembered their relationship with Jack. How much they'd loved him.

[solo_patria]

"That could be something, yes. When my friends and I started our work at home, we aimed to present ourselves as an educational society, and we sometimes took on that work. Etienne often said that the best people to shape the future were the schoolmasters, because they could shape the next generation a bit."

Enjolras is not talking of a school or anything yet, but there is the idea that younger kedan COULD be swayed. "They would likely be more open to new ideas too, and curious. Reaching out, or having some sort of way to meet them, on their level...it's a good idea." He smiled at it, in fact. "I think if it is done right, it could work."

[unetrustworthy]

"They play at the parks a lot." She thought back, trying to recall memories of more than a year past. Not so difficult a task for someone older, like him, but far more of a challenge when one's life consisted of so many to begin with. "I remember...that's where some of them would go to practice their shape-shifting."

[solo_patria]

"And they can't ask us to leave a public place." He smiles the smile of a man who has tested this theory, more than once. If Paris was anything to go by, anyway.

"I would hope, at least." He adds, "I can keep from being too radical there, I think. Becoming friends doesn't seem so radical at first, but then, love IS the biggest provenance of changes, I have found."

[unetrustworthy]

Well, technically, they could. But, so long as he kept the spectacles to a minimum and the conversation light and unthreatening, they had no reason to.

"...so I've heard."

It was also a subject she...didn't want to talk about. Love, that was. Not anymore.

[solo_patria]

That was something to be aware of, yes. Enjolras was fairly sure he could manage that sort of thing here and now. He could be non-incendiary when he tried.

"So then, that is a good idea."

It's probably best to change that subject for the moment, yes.