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

[baltimores]

[ His alertness remains focused on that knife — as it withdraws from his chest and his inks swirl back into their more permanent shape; as Kiritsubo brings it to her tongue to clean. He grins up at her as she settles herself into his lap, bringing his own arms up and around the back of her neck to pull her in further, bring them nose to nose.

As he shifts a little underneath her, obviously stirring — and yet his eyes retain their focus, as though he's separated his mind entirely from his body's physical response to her proximity to him, letting it react on its own while he takes in the pertinent information.

Amos nuzzles her slightly; goes in for a little bite of a kiss once she's done talking. ]

Makes sense. I got some healing magic, but nothing preventative like this. Would've thought I'd've picked something up like that already, huh.

[ He brings one hand to thread his fingers through her hair, broad palm resting against the back of her head; his other hand moves up and down her back rhythmically, low enough to skirt the base of her tail on occasion. ]

Yeah, I can do that. Having the advantage is good. Fuck, I've been taken by surprise once or twice in my life, and it ain't pleasant. Nice to know it isn't going to happen again.

[ His hand stops in the small of her back. Amos leans back against his bed proper, using his hand to try to bring her down with him, on top of him. His broadening grin has teeth. ]

Thanks for this, Fluffy.

[tattooism]

And healing magic can’t help you if you’re dead~

[His reactions are almost separate, the stirring of loins and the focus of the mind, but Kiritsubo’s are just so blended that they cannot be distinguished from the other, that she cannot decouple her lusts from her movements, even if she could choose not to act on them if she had to. Her little comment is a husky, teasing whisper despite the very serious idea of being killed by an attack one didn’t see coming or could not defend against. She tosses her head into the slide of his fingers through her current shape’s heavy golden hair, her spine arches and presses breasts fuller than the last time he’d held them against his chest so that she might wriggle her hips invitingly each time his touch brushed near the base of her tail-

And when he pulls her atop him when he falls back onto the mattress, she smiles back, with a muzzle full of sharp teeth from the half-beast form that he had expressed a budding new interest in when they’d spoken of her abilities beyond their uses in assassination. The change had been seamless. Near instant. The hands that now move to brace and pin on his shoulders are coated in soft white fur, paw-like but still a bit more humanoid and opposable, with claws and plush pads, and her suddenly digitigrade rear legs slip along his sheets until they find the purchase to lever up slightly, her tail still betraying her intent. A slightly cold nose trails along the edge of his jaw, then whiskers, then muzzle, marking him, before her long tongue lolls and then laps a line up his throat.]

Mmm… You’re welcome, lover~

[She wouldn’t do the favors she is for just anyone, though there is still plenty she wouldn’t do for him. (If it conflicted with her own goals, her own stance.). Still… he’s proven himself a very reliable man, in more ways than one. And right now...]

If you wanted to show me your appreciation, though... I’ve been in Springstar so long, all alone, working so hard…

[Very intentionally, yet very naturally, she grinds lazily against his stiffening erection, the black “lips” of this form peeling back to reveal even more smirking, glistening teeth. The dark eyes, though, blacker than black… those are Kiritsubo at the core, no matter what form she takes. Now… laughing eyes, when she teasingly confides,]

And the serious little clerks in the Heliopolis and the uptight Legionary lieutenants are just such disappointing fucks, Amos…

[baltimores]

[ And healing magic can't help him if he's dead. She says it almost teasingly; combined with the way she moves her body against his he can't help but laugh. Is it a laughing matter? Of course not, but it's so far away from the here and now, where he is thoroughly enjoying himself — and which she no doubt can feel, both empathically and physically.

Her form changes and his body responds even more, curiosity and its accompanying desire making itself known. Amos bares his throat as she licks him, an anticipatory shudder going through his body, his fingers clenching to seek purchase within her fur. This is—

He isn't sure how to try to kiss her with her muzzle like that, so he simply keeps his head lolled back, expanse of his skin exposed. Lower he shimmies to start removing his pants, free himself without having to let go of her soft, enticing fur. This is new, and exciting, and he is almost starting to ache with readiness. ]

Well, you know me. [ His breath hitches slightly, and he huffs a laugh again. ] I got all day for you.

[ Even without her help — but with it, maybe he's willing to go the extra couple of miles to see every single one of her needs fulfilled, and then some, too. ]

[tattooism]

[Oh, there was no need to fret about that muzzle. Before their reunion ended, Kiritsubo had plans to teach him just how to "kiss" her, to use those sharp teeth and long, lolling tongue to leave her mark, her scent, and the memory of her mouth on him. After all... She did so hate the idea of being forgettable, or his lovely curiosity not being properly and thoroughly sated. His fingers disappear into the thick white fur of this form, and feeling him squirm beneath her to get out of his pants, get closer to the soft hide that had replaced the soft skin of her more human forms... it makes her laugh in turn, the sound throatier and closer to a rumble to account for a different maw, different vocal chords.]

I hope you have all night, too~

[The fluffy tail whose rounder, shorter shape distinguished her "clearly" from spirits often mistaken for her kind, the trickster foxes and twin-tailed cats, flicks and brushes against his thighs (and dick) as she straddles higher up his body to give him room to undress just enough to fuck, her hand, somewhere between woman and beast, sliding over his chest to brush over the freshly healed lotus flower tattoo with smooth pads and hints of claws instead of fingertips and perfectly manicured nails.

Inviting him to meet her gaze, the dark, dark eyes that seem almost pupiless, she "smiles" again.]

And then... I will go back to being "Shara". Who is a very good girl eager to serve the Tribune. ♡

[- Perhaps, for a brief moment, he might think she was a thing of evil, or at least of overwhelmingly hedonistic selfishness, to speak so casually of the fact that the plan Amos had asked Kiritsubo for required the elimination of an "innocent" to come to fruition, a citizen of Springstar with a high enough position in the Heliopolis to be privy to the Tribune's movements and schedule. ... If he bothered to judge such things, anyway?

She does not leave much time to let him consider it clear-headed. She's ready to sate the urges he had proven so adroit with before she had to go back to her "duties", and if he couldn't keep up...

Well, she had spells to help with that.]