[EVENT|4TH WALL] THE NEWCOMERS’ ARRIVAL | APRIL 15-22

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL and plus ones.
Date: April 15-22 2015 (2016 in-game)
Location: Farmlands outside the city walls, but this log can also be used for locations within the city.
Situation: Spring planting - fourth wall event, week one!
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The days for the festival dawn sunny if a bit chilly, but the air is clear and the soggy ground has dried enough that there isn’t too much mud in the lanes between fields and homesteads. The broad dirt path to the Woodsmen’s land leads past the tram-line construction, lined with waving ribbons on sticks along the sides. The Woodsmen’s territory circles the city, separated from the city’s walls by five hundred yards of neutral land.

The festival’s central area is Liangken’s Clearing, and this is where the festival will begin and end each day. Liangken is an ancient tree, among the oldest on the turtle’s back. Though it doesn’t flower or bear much in the way of leaves anymore, the kedan have cultivated it carefully and now it’s an excellent representation for the revitalisation of old wisdom.



The lanes between the fields and homesteads will house the stalls, contests and walking areas. The Woodsmen will be keeping an eye on these to prevent anyone from walking off the marked paths. The homesteads provide ‘hotspots’ in among the lanes and fields, with Woodsmen families lending their yards to the comfort and entertainment of their guests.

In general, the Woodsmen are a taciturn, soft-spoken lot who nevertheless take great pride in their work. Their lands are all but sacred -- they accept no attitude, no trespassing, no attempts to thwart their authority. This causes some noticeable tension with the Snakes, who are accustomed to being the sole enforcers within the city; but though there may be some ill tempers and raised voices, at no point will anyone come to blows. It’s hard to argue with someone built like a brick wall and carrying sharp farm implements.

The Woodsmen are a touch anxious about having strangers on their land and this shows in them being overly officious or bossy, but at the same time their pride shows clearly and they are eager to show off the state of their lands, their greenhouses, and their farming processes -- practically without being asked. The residents of Keeliai tend to think of the Woodsmen as ‘cowards’, and the Woodsmen are taking this opportunity to prove themselves otherwise with feats of strength and tall tales.

Due to the farmers’ hours of “early to bed and early to rise”, the festival ends in the early evening at sundown, but begins again before dawn -- usually by greeting the sun with a song.

---

LINKS
Heojin, Ran and Lin | Liangken’s Clearing | Stalls and Lanes | OOC Information post | 4th Wall Character Check In

OOC
While Heojin and his bodyguards are open to everyone (including fourth-wall characters!), they are not available for small talk and general directionless CR. For the integrity of the mod’s inbox, please only request a thread with him if you already have an idea of what you’d like your character to ask/do. Other NPCs can be requested by sending a PM to the appropriate journals directly, with the same guidelines.

The top-level comments are for the festival, but fourth-wall characters should feel free to use the rest of the post for anything within the city of Keeliai itself! Just remember to label the top-level comment for location and date.

Comments

[spirity]

Finally something familiar, she thinks, as she sees the red and yellow robes out of the corner of her eye. But then she turns fully and her brow furrows in confusion.

There's a statue in Yue bay, clearly visible from the island. Jinora looked out at her grandfather's statue so often that she's memorized the position of every fold in its robes. She's seen paintings and photos and tributes to her grandfather. That's why her eyes linger on him for a moment, as if she's trying to solve a puzzle. The only thing she's completely sure of is that she's never met him before.

"Are you lost too?"

[12goingon113]

Aang doesn't immediately turn towards the voice, opting instead to focus his attention to the surrounding crowds.

"Oh no, I know exactly where I am," he says craning his neck. As if that one or two inches will make him spot his loved ones that much faster.

"It's everyone else I'm worried about." Here he turns towards the voice and offers the speaker a lop-sided grin.

The kind of smile that Aang was famous for, but for some reason was always left out of his tributes and statuary. It's not the only thing that doesn't entirely match. The robes this boy is wearing are far less formal than any depicted on commemorative scrolls or standing tall in a bay. One of his shoulders remains exposed while the other is draped in a sash of orange that's tied at his waist by another of red.

No, the only place to see that smile and those robes were family pictures of times long since gone by.

Even in the here and now the smile is falling as Aang takes in the sight of the girl with the bright blue arrow adorning her forehead.

[spirity]

Jinora gives him a long searching look, like she's figuring out a puzzle. She's always been quite good at those, though this one is rather impossible. None of their airbenders wears robes like that, and she and her father are the only masters in the world.

The smile cinches it. He looks like Aang. Identical, right down to the smile. Usually, an Avatar only talks to their present life and can't speak to anyone else. When Korra said she saw Aang, he had been an adult. And if he's here to guide her out, he's really not doing a good job right now. In fact, he seems surprised to see her. Maybe she's wrong.

"Who are you looking for?"

[12goingon113]

He doesn't respond right away, almost like he didn't hear her at first.
Mostly...because, well, he kind of missed it.

It's not just the arrow that's distracting him, it's the girl's eyes. She has brown eyes. Aang's never seen an Air Nomad with brown eyes. Or one wearing an outfit quite like the one she's wearing.

"....what? Oh!" he blushes slightly.
"I was coming here with, uh..."

How best to say, my girlfriend and our adult son?

"Some friends!" he says brightly.
A little too brightly. Hi Jinora, your grandfather is a horrible liar. Even when he's merely lying by omission.

[spirity]

Jinora brushes her hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture, completely aware that she's being closely observed. She raises an eyebrow at his obvious lie, but doesn't push it.

"Oh. Can I wait with you?"

[12goingon113]

Unsure of what else to say, Aang says, "Okay."

He has so many questions fighting to get out, but the first successful one to do so just so happens to be the one he'd asked Tenzin.

"Sooooo which temple are you from?"

We interrupt this broadcast for an important message.

[theideaguy]

Speaking of some friends, Sokka happens to be in the nearby area. Because why not? There's still cheap food at the festival, and some of it isn't actually vegetables or fruit, believe it or not. That said... he didn't actually come here with Aang. For that matter, he actually hasn't gotten entirely caught up with all of the details involving one young airbender yet. Or his dear old dad, who had scooted him off with some angry scowls and some horrible muscle twitches in his temple.

So perhaps it might ruin Aang's well laid out plan of lying by omission when Sokka sees the airbender. "Hey, Aang!" he calls out, clearly enthusiastic. "You have got to check out the stuff this one booth is selling. It'd make a great gift for Kata—"

Oh hello there Aang's secret granddaughter.

He looks at Jinora and then Aang. Back to Jinora. Back to Aang.

"Now I want you to be honest, Aang. Did you start some sort of new fashion trend on the turtle? 'Cause this is the second person I've seen wearing your clothes this week."

[OOC: Seriously, if you'd rather not have the threadjack, just let me know. :)]

[spirity]

Jinora gives Aang the same look her father had given him-- a look of bewildered confusion. But before she can answer, a challenger appears! Jinora turns toward the voice and--

Oh. All at once, she feels the emotions she'd been holding back come rushing over her. Excitement, sadness, curiosity, confusion, and even a little fear. Fear that her situation is worse than she thought.

She turns back to Aang. Quietly:

"You are Aang. And--" She turns to Sokka. "-- you're Sokka."

He looks just like he does in photos. Well, much younger but still as expressive.

[12goingon113]

Something had begun to nag at the back of Aang's mind. Something about the girl that seemed familiar, something more than just her arrow, but it's not until she looks at him that way that he knows what it is.

He's seen that kind of look before, but coming from blue eyes rather than brown.
And in that instant he knows exactly who she is, and goes so far as to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

And then Sokka arrives unexpectedly. Aang is so surprised that that he bites down harder than he should have and regrets it instantly.

"....ow," he mutters as Sokka speaks. When Jinora turns to him he nods, and then reaches into his mouth to see if he's bleeding.

Nope. Not bleeding. Just...dang that hurt.

"You're...Ikk...no. You're Jinora, aren't you?"
The picture that Tenzin keeps with him is apparently out of date.

[theideaguy]

Wait. What.

What's going on here.

"Uh," Sokka says as his eyes dart between the two people with arrows on their forehead. Suddenly, he feels like there's something here that he doesn't know. Especially given the fact that both of them seem to know each other's names. But from what Sokka knows, they don't know each other.

Not to mention that she knows him.

"Have... you... been stalking me or something?" Sokka says rather innocently and slightly nervous. "I mean, I don't know who you are........ Jinora?" His name rises an octave when he says her name. Yeah, he doesn't know that name at all.

And then he leans over to Aang and whispers, though it's clearly one Jinora would hear, into Aang's shoulder. "What's going on here?"