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

[gravings]

[ Amos doesn't bring up space life too often with her, so she looks up at him with curiosity when he does. When he puts it that way, it makes sense that there's something, magic or technology, that allows the plants to thrive. By this point, technology impresses her far more than magic, so she thinks it must be magic.

Would she like to take a flower back? She considers the blooms again, considers the hostility of the people just now, and thinks that she doesn't know when she'll be able to come back. Maybe soon, maybe never. ]

I think that's a good idea.

[ She can show it to everyone at the house. A splash of color among four people who seem allergic to anything but monochrome. ]

You can pick things for yourself too, if you like. [ She points. ] Those are cooking herbs. And the tomatoes should be ready soon. Oh, I can write down their watering schedules for you...

[ She whips out a little notebook and a pen (fountain) and begins to write away. Neatly, a simple doodle of each plant, followed by the name and care instructions. There are aren't more than a dozen types of plants, but because she's trying to be thorough, it may take more than a moment. ]

[baltimores]

[ Amos is thinking: Gray will have one of her flowers with her while waiting for the ghosts to go away for another season. Nevermind the earlier hostility; who would do that to Gray twice? And nevermind what may come in the future, because what would Gray have to do with that? She should always be welcome here; he just can't fight off ghosts is the only problem.

He looks over at her with a strong degree of fondness as she starts to list off all of these possibilities— takes out pen and paper to write it down so he won't forget. Amos is silent as she does, so he doesn't interrupt her concentration; if she ever looks back up at him, she'll find him smiling warmly while alternating his gaze between her and the plants around them.

And when he thinks it's safe to speak again, ] I'll use all of 'em. Figured it's about time I learn how to properly cook, anyway. It'll taste better knowing where everything came from.

[ By which he means both from a friend and fuck, I love natural food.

He takes a moment to reach back for her flowers, letting his fingertips graze, then rest steady on one of their petals. ]

Maybe I could take one back with me too. Then we'd both have one at our places at the same time.

[ Like a different kind of friendship symbol from the plant they'd planted together back in Springstar all that time ago. ]

[gravings]

[ Gray smiles into her notebook, the ends of her pen still bobbing away. ]

I see... They could be sister flowers.

[ It's a nice thought, especially considering Amos's manly air, and it manages to warm her despite the cold press of spirits in the air. It's cute to think about, though she isn't sure most men would appreciate being called cute. ]

Do you live with anyone, Mr. Amos? It can be more fun to cook if you have someone else to cook for.

[baltimores]

[ Sister flowers. He looks thoughtfully at the flower he's lightly touching, little smile on his face. He likes the sound of that.

At her question, Amos turns back to look at her. ]

Me? Nah. Not since... Well, I don't think manors really count. So not since I was back on my ship in my first universe. We'd do family dinners once a week, though. Usually I'd be on sauce detail or something easy like that.

[ A beat; a new thoughtful look crossing his face. ]

Did you want to pick some stuff and come over to my place for dinner?

[ What else could she mean... But he'd be happy to have her. ]

[gravings]

[ "First universe." It's a distinction that makes her smile a bit wrly. There probably aren't many people left he could say that to with no explanation necessary. ]

To your place... Is that okay?

[ Especially with tension being at an all-time high. Even though the crowd ultimately respected Amos's decision to defend her, she knows it didn't make for good politics. And it won't be much better for him to welcome her into his home... ]

I wouldn't want you to get in trouble.

[baltimores]

It's my place. How would I get in trouble?

[ The question is a real one, Amos unbothered by tension he doesn't feel and uncaring of politics he doesn't acknowledge. To him, this really is nothing more than him inviting a friend over for dinner. If Gray had her own timely business to attend to then that'd be one thing, but since he doesn't think that's the case... ]

C'mon, let's pick our ingredients and go.

[ ... it's almost dinner time, isn't it? ]

[gravings]

[ Well, if he says it's alright... Gray may be cognizant of optics and politics due to her time in a place that was relentlessly political, but she doesn't care for those things either. Besides, if there's any damage being done to Amos's sterling reputation, the worst of it would have been done when he stood up for her in the first place. The least she can do is help him with dinner. (Is it that time already?) ]

... Alright. We can cook something together.

[ And she can finish up her notes for him later. She claps her notebook shut and tucks her pen away, looking over which plants are ripe for the picking.

(And then they picked their ingredients and went and cooked a nice rustic meal.) ]