I saw Mommy kissing Samba-Claus (KISS BINGO EDITION) 💋🌿

[beleos]

QIASU (HIGHSTORM)

On December 15th, the marker of the latter half of Takiltu, Kenos comes together to celebrate unity and togetherness, to come together with friends and family, to be kind to others and share in one’s wealth - whether that comes in the form of knowledge, monetary gains, or the exchange of gifts and one’s time. This celebration is an amalgamation of many worlds’ winter festivals, and as such, is known in the two cities as the Year’s End Festival, or Qiasu as Highstorm calls it.

This part of Takiltu is when Highstorm truly starts to hit winter. Snow is a frequent occurrence, but it’s one that the city welcomes, since with the snow comes a few of the most beloved traditions of the city. By far the most popular is heading to Greenwood Yards. The gardens themselves may be either dormant or showing their simpler winter gardens, but you may have noticed an area by the bathhouses left in surprising amount of disrepair… This is because during the winter months, this area fills up with a natural outdoor hot spring! Take a swim under the moonlight, and even explore some of those ruined old manors, now with their first floors warmly flooded. It’s a tradition to bring in your favorite drinks and spend an evening sipping it in a parlor with friends, and to make new ones by sharing your drinks. Of course, do watch out for the ghosts. They’re mischievous more than malicious, but this is their favorite time of the year too!

You can also head to the Great Tree, which is decorated for the season with glittering glass orbs and is the current roost for the pale Moonbugs of Highstorm. Write a wish on a slip of paper and hold out your hands, and one of the Moonbugs will come sit within them. Whisper the wish to the Moonbug and it’ll take the paper and fly away to find someone to fulfill it. Of course, this also means that a Moonbug is likely to come find you! Besides it being good karma to fulfill the wish, you’ll be given a brief vision of the person whose wish you fulfilled and be blessed by the tree for the duration of the month depending upon your Aspect:

• Advocate: People are more likely to buy you meals/rounds and every recipe you make turns out perfectly.
• Exalt: Animals seem to think more kindly of you, and you'll find them much easier to befriend.
• Harbinger: You're given a more silver tongue as your arguments seem to be better at persuading people.
• Iconoclast: You won't be effected by cold weather in any way.
• Savant: You heal much more rapidly from any injury and are generally the very picture of health.
• Stargazer: Your indulgences (whatever they may be) are both easier to find and are of higher quality.

And of course, there’s one more well-known practice in Highstorm, though it’s more of a tradition of Kowloon’s… The Gävle family is a well-known family who has lived in Highstorm for a long time, and they brought a tradition of building a festive Yule goat made straw in the square outside of their businesses. However, it also happens to be outside of Yura Szczepanski’s home. He’ll never do it himself, of course, but if you manage to burn it down? He’ll reward you, obviously. It doesn’t make it any more legal, so those that try generally spend some time in a Highstorm jail, but it’s an enshrined enough practice at this point that not only has it burned down more often than it’s survived, but there’s even a betting pool in Kowloon for whether it survives or not.

Of course, if these traditions aren’t quite your vibe, you’ll also find the city just generally set up for a metropolitan winter. The Antiques & Baubles Market is rearranged to make room for a large ice-skating rink, Tasseography (the coffeeshop by the Tomes) has a seasonal special for a hot chocolate that will fortify you from the cold for a few hours (and make you fire resistant? Weird,), and the city also hosts a full-size gingerbread house that you can indeed take a bite from, to name a few things. Generally speaking, if it’s something you could do in a snowy city at home, you’ll probably find an equivalent somewhere in the city of moonlight.

Be warned, however, if you are visiting from out of town. Highstorm's reception seems just a touch bit chiller than the weather!

YEAR'S END FESTIVAL (SPRINGSTAR)

Springstar will never turn down a chance to celebrate, but eternally Highstorm’s opposite, this is the warmest time of year. With the sun always shining, some days can get near sweltering, but that just means you have a different set of traditions to have fun with it!

The ivy-like vines that decorated the city in the beginning of the month (November) are now in full bloom, and you’re now likely to learn why the Meri consider them sacred. Wherever the flowers bloom, they encourage feelings of warmth and slightly higher inclination for physical contact within those that encounter their magical pollen*. Holding hands with someone by the flowers will give you feelings of liveliness and happiness, and for a few hours, the positive traits of the person you’re holding hands with become more prominent in you and vice versa. These effects do linger a bit longer, since for a month, you’ll also find that being around this person also gives you both a little boost in energy. It’s very sweet! This also comes with a bit of a further game, if you’re at all a frequenter of Psychagogía...

Madame Dee’s hosts a very popular competition simply called Kiss Bingo. Approach the booth set-up outside the brothel and touch your Shard to a special card, and names will appear upon it. From there, the rules are simple. Just give that person a kiss! It can be on their hand, their lips, their [redacted], all of it counts, and once you do, a little kiss mark will mark their name out. Get a bingo, and you can pick from a variety of prizes such as a ticket for a week’s worth of visits at a local buffet, a shopping spree at a nearby store, or a box seat for a day at the Coliseum. Of course, if you’re really an overachiever, fill out the whole card to get multiple prizes. Madame Dee might just give you a job!

With the promise of home that the Meri deeply believe in, they have their own gifting tradition. The Shard-Bearers know best that it’s possible to receive gifts from the Timestream, and for Year’s End, it’s tradition for the Tribune to pull out all the stops. For a week of the Festival, the Tribune works just outside of Heliopolis, and with the help of priests from the Church of Helios, reaches into the Timestream to produce a gift for anyone that comes to ask. This year, however, he's asked Quetzalcoatl and Samba's elves to deliver gifts, but you might not get anything you asked for (or maybe you did!) but they're all gifts the timestream spit out!

On rainy days (or simply the unbearably hot ones), you can also go to Starlight Park, which offers a reprieve from the weather. Inside the dome, you’ll find a idyllic, snowy valley where you can partake in all the natural joys of winter. There’s (highly) competitive snowball fights, sledding, and skiing to partake in, though you might be cautioned away from one slope. Head down that course and about halfway down, you’ll be chased by… a yeti? Luckily it doesn’t seem to be able to harm you, but it’s still shockingly fast and will catch you no matter how quickly you ski. You can also spend a bit of money to rent a yurt along the river for a relaxing and exceptionally cozy glamping experience. Some Yurts are even adorned with the sacred vines. You know, for no reason.

You’ll also find the Meri heading away from the city of Springstar a bit to head down to some of the beaches that surround Springstar. Being an island within an Island (capital ‘I’ meaning the Kenos kind of island), Takiltu is the traditional start of Springstar’s summer season and all the fun that comes with that. The beaches are bustling, but the cool and crystal-clear waters of the ocean surrounding the city make it worthwhile. Surfing, diving, and sailing are popular activities, but just make sure to stay within sight of the shore. It doesn’t take too long to hit the end of the Island and sailing outside the magical barrier that keeps Springstar floating in Kenos’s starscape generally isn’t survivable.

Just be mindful, if you're trying to escape Highstorm's chill for some summer fun, as attitudes are shifting toward bearers in general, and it might not be as easy as it once was.

NOTES

Weather summary for the second 30 days of Takiltu (NOV & DEC):

• Highstorm is out of fall and into winter. While there are some milder days, snow (and heavy snow at that!) is getting more common.
• Springstar is hot and humid, and it's not uncommon for brief thunderstorms to roll through in the afternoon.

Notable city changes:

• Both cities have experienced changing attitudes toward shard-bearers. You will need to be mindful if you want to travel to a city that doesn't house your faction, as things might not be as easy when it comes to getting around.
• Springstar has had an increase in attacks toward it's citizens, and they are often fatal and destructive. Rumors travel among Springstar's seedier types that these are escaping from Ryad, and they aren't being reigned in. That always comes with a flicker of worry.

CODING

Comments

[wolfish]

I've had to moderate my spells before... Granted, those were healing magic.

[ Byleth had seen a bit of that for himself, when they were hiding from that spider some time back. Recovery magic was something of a different animal, seeing as it mended damage rather than caused it, so... ]

Any sage wisdom you'd like to impart?

[ It was clear enough to him by now that Byleth could have fit right in at the magic school in Fhirdiad, had life ever taken him there. Yuri could only benefit from getting his thoughts on the matter before attempting to introduce light magic to that ice sphere he'd formed. ]

[fishfearme]

Hm...

[Byleth paused to gather his thoughts, trying to think on a suitable way to describe how one modulated magic. He knew that sometimes his explainations came across as a little vague or obtuse, because for him he just... understood it. True, a bit of experimentation and accidentally having a spell blow up in his face from time to time did spot his record, but otherwise he was the envy of most mages, able to digest and comprehend magical theory almost immediately and flawlessly pull it off on the first try.

It made it hard to know what, exactly, required explaining - or what even needed tips - though. What did normal people find difficult, hm...]

You cast magic frequently enough to know how much energy you require to 'fire off the spell', as it were. [He was assuming, anyways] If you wish to cast something at half-power, you use half the energy. Something at quarter-power, you use quarter the energy of a 'full' spell.

[He considered the fragile glass orb in his hands.]

With this... try going for a fifth of the energy you normally use for your spell. It should be more flash than substance - the difficulty would be in maintaining its ephemeral form long enough to bounce around a few times inside the ice.

[wolfish]

[ So it all comes down to control. That isn't so much of a surprise to Yuri, and it is one area in which he's strong. It's one thing he has honed, though this isn't always concerned with magic. Far from it, really — but Yuri takes Byleth's advice, nodding along as he conjures up some light magic. ]

Alright, I'll give it a go.

[ He stops short of giving it a concentrated form, letting the energy exude from his hand as he flexes his fingers experimentally. It's not a far cry from the way he'd held healing spells up to wounds, and that experience may be availing them here. Yuri had learned to restrain how much energy was used to avoid enemy attention, or stretch his magic just a bit further.

Healing magic wasn't meant to do damage, however. Light magic was slightly different. Still, after getting a feel for the spell, he cautiously flicks it into the waiting ice sphere, placing minimal force behind it to avoid breaking what Byleth had made. ]

[fishfearme]

[The light spell tumbles into the hollow ice sphere, and successfully bounces around without causing any undue cracks or catastrophic ice shattering. In fact, rainbow lights refract from within, bathing Byleth's arms and torso in rapidly shifting lights before the spell slowly dimmed into nothingness.]

Excellent. Well done, Yuri.

[Byleth visibly brightened at his friend's success, a brief smile softening his features.]

Did you see the effect it had? I admit, I was a little dazzled at first, but I was looking directly at the ice sphere... [Just to make sure he knew if he had to drop it incase the light spell had been a bit too strong] ...I should probably make the ice a little more thicker when I upscale this, though, just to dampen any potential dazzle. It shouldn't reduce the refraction too much, I think...

[They wanted this to be memorable, not blinding, after all.]

[wolfish]

[ Yuri would say that Byleth gave good advice, that the effort he'd put into his explanation paid off, but with Byleth already working out how to improve their results, he set the thought aside. Lafer he'd be sure he told him, because he knew Byleth wasn't confident in that arena.

But it had made sense and he understood. That was something.

For the present, he listened to Byleth's thoughts with a thoughtful hum, bringing a hand to his chin. ]

I'd agree, especially with our aim being larger scale...

[ Thicker ice should address the potential issue, whereas he couldn't dim a light spell. ]

Don't think I've seen anything like it, so I'd wager they'll definitely remember something like this.

[ And it was beautiful as well. ]

[fishfearme]

Right, then we have a plan.

[With that, he applied a precise bit of fire magic to the ice bowl in his hands, melting it into harmless water that splashed onto the earth at their feet. With that done, he flexed his fingers and picked an unoccupied spot in front of them. He was already drawing up the mental calculations, figuring out the dimensions and how much space he'd need...

And arranging it so that Yuri would be able to cast the light magic into the bowl from the side... as he'd need to support it by resting it on the ground, as it'd be too big to hold up - or maybe he can create 'stilts' for it? Yes, the stilts might work. It could function like those 'hot weather balloons' he read about, but feed it light magic instead of flame.

With that in mind, Byleth started his work. It took some intense concentration, and several adjustments throughout the process, but after five minutes of work, a structure just tall enough to let Yuri comfortable stand underneath it towered: a round yet roughly cut orb made of pure ice.]

There... done.

[He sounded a little breathless, admittedly worn out since he wasn't back to full strength, but he was pleased at his achievement. The little ice orb was drawing several looks too, people pointing and making awed noises. Even if the light magic didn't work out... this alone was pretty memorable.]

[wolfish]

[ Yuri knew what the plan was, but he hadn't quite anticipated the scale of the final product. Complete with a structure to hold it up off the ground, the resulting ice orb was drawing attention from passers by all on its own. He stared at it for a good moment, wondering just how much something of this scale would demand—

Then Byleth's winded voice gave him a pretty good idea. Yuri's attention redirected to him, studying Byleth's features with concern. After that terrible revival, he was still not fully back to himself. Had this been too much...? At the same time, the didn't look distressed. If anything, Byleth seemed pleased with his work.

So, making sure Byleth could see what he was doing, he lifted a hand to pat his back. ]

You did good work... It looks impressive already.

[ His part came next, he hadn't forgotten, but it bore saying. ]

[fishfearme]

Ha... thank you, Yuri. It's not my best work, admittedly...

[Byleth crossed his arms and scrutinised the orb critically, taking in its defects and general shape. This would serve no purpose on the battlefield, serve no purpose for a mercenary in general, yet his satisfaction remained. It was a little odd, really. Byleth usually wasn't the sort who took pleasure in what he deemed as 'pointless endeavours'.

But, this did serve a purpose, even if it wasn't brutishly practical. The happiness of a stranger... surely that held a value all on its own?]

But it'll do for now. Are you ready for your part?

[wolfish]

[ Byleth might just be a little bit of a perfectionist. Yuri had considered the possibility more than once, when it came to his writing or his martial prowess, but these could be explained in other ways. When it came to the ice sphere, though... Well, no matter. Byleth was still clearly proud of his work, flaws and all.

And the structure was impressive, captivating in its own right. Few could do such a thing with ice magic back home. ]

After all the work you just put in, I'd better be.

[ He flashed his friend a slant of a smile before he sauntered over to the sphere. It was best he get to his part sooner than later, since Byleth might benefit from having a seat somewhere or perhaps a meal. Both, even. And he wouldn'f consider it with a job half-finished.

Situating himself under the sphere's opening, Yuri focused his light magic into his hand. He caged it between his fingers, doing his best to apply Byleth's prior suggestion at a larger scale, then released that ball of light with a gentle toss into the ice. Then another, and a third for good measure, angling them to bounce around the interior of the sphere in different trajectories.

From his vantage point, he could see the spells bound around the interior of the ice, but that only told him so much. Yuri tipped his head in Byleth's direction to gauge his reaction. ]

How's it look from there?

[fishfearme]

Beautiful.

[While inside the orb, it probably looked a little impressive but nothing to write home about, on the outside however, the cut ice refracted the bouncing lights into a multitude of rainbows, casting them onto every surface. The tree, the people, the grass...

And the bugs that flittered to and fro, transporting wishes diligently, their wings caught that light, reflecting it back as flashes of red or greens or blues, making the entire thing even more spectacular. Around them, a crowd was quickly gathering, mrumurs of interest growing with the occasional gasp and clapped hands.

It was a pointless bit of magic, if you looked at it from the pragmatic lens of a battle-hardened mercenary. But as Byleth looked about himself, seeing the happy faces of those watching the spectacle, he couldn't help but feel that it wasn't pointless at all, wasn't a waste of time and effort...

It filled him with a satisfaction he'd never find on the battlefield.]

Everyone seems to like it.

[wolfish]

I think you're right about that.

[ It's true that from his vantage point, Yuri doesn't get to see the spectacle itself in its full glory. Despite that, he's still treated to a sight worth seeing. He can see the way light bounces off of reflective surfaces and dyes peoples' clothing, faces, and hair in vibrant hues that change from one instant to he next. It dances in their eyes, drawing even more attention to their wonder and delight.

He also can't help but notice two very particular points of interest. One is a man whose eyes are not on the ice sphere itself, but instead trained on the expression of the fellow beside him. The warmth in his features is all too easy to see as he watches his companion take in the light show with open awe. ]

Hey, check that pair at your two o' clock — I think that's them.

[ The other thing Yuri observes, when he turns Byleth's way, is a change about his person. Maybe it's a subtle change in expression or posture, maybe it's both or neither. But in the months when it had been the two of them, Yuri had come to have a sense of Byleth's mood, between exposure and effort. He'd wanted to understand the other mercenary, after all... And he thinks in this moment that Byleth seems genuinely happy with his results.

It's well-earned. Byleth's creativity and skill made this possible. Made all these people smile. And he can't help a smile of his own at the thought himself, feeding more light into the ice sphere with the first few finally fade.

He doesn't mind seeing it from this angle at all. ]