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

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

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Phew, that's the first hurdle. She really thought he might refuse...

Not expecting to get this far, she flounders a little. D's kind hand squeeze helps, at least... Sharing an empathic bond really goes a long way toward assuring a Gray that the person she's with isn't judging her every move.

Now what? There are, she's finding, unexpected logistics in kissing someone. Her only other experience has involved someone close to her height, and D is what seven feet tall?? Gray glances up at him, cogs turning, then away, too flustered to look him in the eye. Should she ask him to kneel? Isn't that awkward?...

In the end, she decides that inconveniencing D is unacceptable. She makes her decision and sighs out her nerves. All at once, she looks back up at him, braces down slightly, and then hops up to a perfect height to brace her hand on his shoulder and deliver a well-mannered kiss to his lips.

It's a ridiculous application of athleticism. Add is already laughing at her before she's touched the ground, a little metallic clank signifying that he's fallen over.

Hello, Gray is no longer anxious but instead wants to die from embarrassment. Still holding D's hand, she looks ambiguously away somewhere, her hood sheltering at least some of the redness of her face.

And what were the results of this experiment she's been bullied into? From an objective standpoint, she can't say she disliked it... though this is a very different experience compared to Rin. Less complicated. More raw embarrassment. Hard to draw conclusions from... She'll need a larger sample size. ]

... Thank you.

[ She says faintly, though she feels like she should apologize. ]

[......Oh.

This turn of events surprises him (but doesn't necessarily displease him). What's funny, maybe, is he had intentions of being polite and offering Gray a kiss on the back of her hand--after he had so rudely appeared to hold it--so she could be spared... well, what ended up happening anyway.

And on top of that, he definitely would have had manners enough to bend down for her if she had asked...

But this isn't so bad actually. He had given her the opportunity. (Only, he thought she would voice her wants, but if they are the same person, maybe he should have seen this coming. Oops.) Gray was bold enough to hop up and give him a smooch nevertheless.

And now she is unfortunately subjected to more of the mixture of his internal feelings: a bit of surprise, a strangely warm churn, something almost like an apology. The barest hints of a smile touch the edge of his lips.]

You're welcome.

[He does not want to correct anything; he feels it would be too imposing, too forward. It doesn't matter how good or bad the kiss was anyway, only that she was able to tally off one of the blocks.]

I'm sorry it had to be with me.

[Add is making fun of her, and Left Hand would have been making fun of him.]

[ If someone is already an oven on full blast, does a bit of extra heat from an adjacent oven really make a difference? In other words, both Gray and D are both warm and apologetic, continuing a long essay on how they are actually the same person.

Gray vents a bit of her heat in the form of aggressively measured breathing before slowly looking up at D. The simple fact that his emotions are transparent to her is the only thing keeping her from going into a mortified spiral.

At least he's smiling (by his standards) and sounds normal, which gets a weak smile and a dry feeling of humor out of her in return. They can maybe agree that there's something funny about the situation. Also strangely funny is the fact that Rin said much the same thing — "I'm sorry that it's me." Gray wonders what kind of impression she gives off that she keeps getting apologies for something she's choosing to participate in.

She shakes her head. ]

You're probably one of the easiest ones on my card.

[ On account of him being an agreeable and familiar fellow who doesn't judge her. ]

Since you already knew about the cards... are you participating?

[HE'S the easiest one? Damb!! Should he be complimented or offended? Then again, he thinks about some of the others in Kenos... But this is Gray? No one would ever give Gray a hard time, right...?

He'd probably break them if they did. (Ignore this.)]

No. My skills are better for hunting vampires, not really for kissing.

[His self esteem is so bad. 🥹

Gray now has evidence his kisses are mid. Well, he executes them okay, but he's (gestures at all of him). Lacks the social rizz.]

Though I guess others aren't as spared as I had assumed, if I appear on their cards. But they have a chance to try another row or column without me in it.

[ Vampire hunting... Somehow she didn't know this about him. As with many things between them, she feels she can relate; bring born a dhampir, he's probably well-suited to fighting vampires, while Gray being born spiritually sensitive makes her well-suited to fighting ghosts.

Also she really can't judge what D's kisses are like based on her haphazard drive-by. If anything, she's the one showing off mid technique... ]

I-I don't know how much skill is required...

Ihihihi! If that were a requirement, Gray would have no chance!

Add!

[ PUNCHES HIS CAGE (gentle) but anyway moving on ]

Um, speaking of your being on cards... I didn't know you name was spelled that way.

[ In another timeline, he lived in her head as Dee... ]

[THE FACT SHE CAN GET THE FAINT ECHO OF AMUSEMENT FROM D ANYTIME ADD IS PUNCHED...]

It wasn't so bad.

[Her attempt. But that is all he says because he is trying NOT to call attention to the fact he did not mind the kiss. Maybe he should mind it more. LOOK. Just because he thinks he is a monster who deserves to be alone doesn't mean he cannot appreciate a girl kissing him.]

It is the letter D, yes. That's all.

[Isn't he so mysterious? (no)

She at least isn't alone... Liem also thinks his name is Dee. He just... doesn't know that... Not thst he minds really.

Vampire Hunter Dee.]

[ He says it wasn't bad, which gets a little ripple of skepticism from Gray. He's just being polite, she figures... Surely it was like getting smooched by an airborne dolphin.

She wonders if asking for the D-tails of his name would be too personal. It's possible that his parents were like hers and just unusually lazy about lazing their child... Maybe he has siblings named A, B, and C. (Though she hopes not, that seems depressing.) In the end, she leans on the fact that he's never seemed to mind her questions. And if he does seem to mind, at least she'll be able to sense it and reroute. Empathic bonds are so convenient. ]

Is there... a story behind your name?

[Don't be suspicious of his honest feelings, wow.... She's valid. He was being both polite and earnest, as is expected of him always.

Also, jokes on her, the twin sibling is also named fucking D which is stupid. Double Ds.]

No.

[Which is also honest. Gray is just someone he feels he can be simple with, someone he doesn't have to impress. Not that he goes through other interactions trying at all to impress anyone.]

It is simply a name I have chosen to go by. Someone like me doesn't have any reason to need a name to remember.

[Sorry that he is ALWAYS morose.]

[ Oh... It does seem like it's that straightforward. No one tell her about D's twin D. He says he chose D himself. Now the question is why... Gray wonders if he really just vibed super hard with that letter for no particular reason.

What's more confusing is his last statement. Gray frowns, mildly concerned and not used to people other than herself being self-derisive. They continue to be the same person. ]

I think it's nice being able to remember your name... and, um, actually, it's easier to remember than when people have three names.

[ like (throws dart at fate/) Karmaglyph Meluastea Deluc ]

[Me opening this and once more being like DILUC?

But this is amusing. He hasn't ever really had anyone praise the value of his simple name. Even though it is simple because he is a morose fool.]

Three is a lot. Many Nobles had several names. [Perhaps it's why his is so short...] Was Gray a name you were given when you were young?

[There are a lot of assumptions here, but he figures Gray might correct him if he is wrong.]

[ karmaglyph is the diluc we have at home

D's assumptions about Gray are all correct because once more, they are the same person. ]

It was the name I was born with. I'm not sure if it was because of my hair, or if it was just a coincidence.

[ It sure feels like a bad joke to her, though. She doesn't help her own case either by only dressing in shades of black, white, and gray BUT. ]

Nobles... I happened to meet a lot of people like them in my homeworld. I'd always feel a little overwhelmed by all their names.

[ Like she probably had to sit down and memorize them like homework overwhelmed. ]

Did you meet Nobles through your vampire hunting work?

[Just remembered that they are probably still standing here holding hands, I can't remember. He should really let Gray go on about her business instead of holding her up, but she isn't terrible company unfortunately.]

It's not a bad name.

[In case she was somehow worried at all about his judgement. There isn't any. As usual. Gray cannot, on any level, be any worse than "D" at all.]

"Nobility" is what the purebred vampires were referred to, so yes. I met them often.

[He... was... often killing them. It's fine. He killed all of the bad ones.]

The humans destroyed themselves and much of the planet with bombs, and the vampires came to power in the aftermath. They built their own society and called themselves Nobles.

[ Yes they are still here holding hands, what about it.

Gray's mouth opens to an :O when he reveals that Nobles are in fact vampires, but she startles completely at the bomb reveal. She didn't even think he came from a world in which bombs existed; his stylistic choices really made her think he came from a full-fledged fantasy world. ]

I thought the vampires would be living in secrecy, but it was actually the opposite...

[ Suddenly this is a fascinating world situation. Just regular old vampires weren't enough for her apparently. Only bomb vampires matter. ]

Then... how many years in the future... erm, did your world use "A.D."?

They lived in secrecy for a very long time. You are still correct.

[Eons of secrecy maybe, if the first one is anything to go by. The mythology of vampires just that until after 1999.]

Yes.

[He knows what she is asking. There have only been a few people here he has realized are from a similar timeline, and he hadn't expected Gray to be one of them.

Funny considering himself.]

I was from the year 12,090 A.D. on Earth.

[SORRY HE IS FROM SO FAR IN THE FUTURE IT'S INSANE.]

[ The fact that vampires definitely do exist in her world, powerful but obscure, helps her make the connection. Her modest imagination doesn't even allow her to entertain that non-Earth worlds might have a concept of bombs, but in this case she just happened to be correct.

More importantly— ]

Twelve... Twelve thousand...?!

[ Instead of a hat flying off a man's head, picture Gray's hood briefly achieving lift-off, her secret ahoge sticking up before becoming gently blanketed again by her hood. ]

That's... I'm only from 2004 A.D....

[ Does that make her a Neanderthal to him... The age of the Round Table felt far enough away to her, but that was a mere 1500 years before her time. D lived 10,000 years in her future. Maybe he knew flying cars and cybernetic people... ]

[HE GETS A GLIMPSE OF THE SECRET AHOGE.....?! (As if he doesn't live in the same house anyway.)

The surprise doesn't bother him too much. He understands twelve thousand years into the future of Earth is a long time. He knows because he's lived about ten thousand of it... And, yes, he does know about hovering cars and cybernetic people. And also advanced, colonizing aliens apparently.]

Your year at least means you weren't a part of the same timeline when humans began nuclear warfare in 1999 and destroyed much of the planet.

[Her timeline is safe... Was? "Safe"... It at least means he's happy about that for her.]

[ So not just bombs, but nuclear bombs. Gray isn't quite sure what to say... if there's even anything worth saying. Most of the planet being destroyed must be ancient history for him. ]

What's the planet like in your time? Did the planet... heal by then?

[ She's no expert on the persistence of nuclear rapture. A nuclear war could have effects lasting for a million years, for all she knows. But surely D's world must have recovered well enough, or she'll have to wonder why he isn't a Zenite looking for a hard reset. ]

[Maybe he is a fool who desperately wants a bad planet back... Briefly, he glances around, and then he tucks her hand around so he can lead her casually off the main most street.

Why he does this without literally telling her anything when it's simple is so stupid, but he does. He at least doesn't drag her very far, just out of plain sight.]

I can show you.

[(Sadly) lets go of her hand because he only has one left to reach beneath the long cape. After a second, he brings out the glittering Sunbeam between a few of his fingers. He offers it between them to her.]

[ How sad indeed. Gray's hand is a little cold, but her attention quickly turns to the little glimmer that emerges from D's cape.

Right. Their sunbeams... With a little trepidation but much more curiosity, Gray gingerly takes the thing into her palm. ]

[The warm bead rolls into her palm. Its light swells up brightly into her eyes, consuming her vision.

If she has never been a bird, she is like one now. High above the ground in the sky she soars, brushing the very bottom of misty clouds. The air is surprisingly tepid, almost unnaturally so even at this height.

Far below, the surface of the earth has been cut rough and left mostly bald on far sides, clay deserts stretching what must be hundreds of miles which meet in the middle at a lush crop of beautiful green grass and trees. The area is peppered by a tiny town with nothing more than cabin-style houses, and a church, and the sound of children squealing with play. Humans who have found one respite in the middle of barren land.

The dirt road out leads into the distance. Miles away is another, larger town unluckily planted on bare ground in two lines like an old Western. More than houses and a church, there must be a store, a bar, a town hall. A settlement of humans fortified a bit harder through commerce.

Out of place and eclipsing these on the horizon are massive interstate highways, though chunks of them here and there have fallen away to leave gaping holes behind. They lead toward something far from where Gray is hovering, and when she is sucked in that direction, her speed is immense even if it isnt jarring. The dark speck grows as she nears, and a futuristic city rises up and looms into view. Skyscrapers tower over the smaller industrial buildings, and the rooflines on the outer edge are dotted by cannons housing hydrolic barrels which definitely don't shoot traditional ammunition.

But it's humans who are coming and going here now. In cars, in hovering crafts, in space ships coming from the other side of the world. Aside for the ones who have hidden themselves deep in the earth, sleeping eternally, the ruling vampires have been eradicted. The only remnants of their existence is the technology left behind.

Gray's peripheral begins glowing brighter, and the warm light encroaches inward until she's blind like before. The light fades, along with the warmth, and then she is left in the alley with D again, eyes momentarily sore with afterimage.]

[ The only other sunbeam Gray has touched has been her own, so in that sense she's also been been a bird -- but the differences between her world and D's are large enough to mesmerize her from inception. The little village living like a weed sprouting through the cracks, at least, is familiar; her village was much the same. Stubborn but content, surviving on the scraps of the earth as a matter of course.

The familiarity only declines from there. Broken down highways like she'd only see in a movie, though the movies of her time couldn't hope to capture the same weight of abandonment. Before she knows it she's in a new place, in a city closer to fantasy than her early 21st century understanding of a city. As she surmised, there are the flying cars... It's a mindblowing sight, yet she's used to having her mind blown -- so though she naturally feels awe, curiosity reigns as she tries in vain to absorb all of the overwhelming detail below her.

Too soon, she's pulled out of the vision. She blinks the ghost of it away from her eyes, feels her feet back beneath her.

Even if that world were a snapshot of the future of Gray's, she can't say she feels especially sentimental or connected to it. Not any more than she'd be connected to a city in the United States. But still it paints a picture of resilience that feels tangibly human -- for better or worse, clinging to life in opposition to nature.

She looks back to D, offers his sunbeam back with a refreshed view of him. D....... still looks like an odd duck in the context of his own world. But Gray probably looked like an odd duck in hers too. ]

I saw... I think there were cannons on the rooftops. What were those for?

[Politely, he accepts the Sunbeam back from her, and he tucks it away on himself beneath the long cape. After a moment of standing there with contemplation and hesitation..... the hand emerges stupidly again to reach out and lightly hold hers.

HE TRULY HATES THIS POLLEN! It's making a fool out of him. Anyway. He's compelled to hold Gray's hand to feel any ounce of relief, so here they are.]

They are a form of particle cannon. The Nobility made them to fight hostile aliens which attacked the solar system and the planet. [Surprise........ There are vampires, supernatural sorcery, but also ALIENS. Destroy this canon.] What you saw was once the Noble capital.

But humans have since taken it as their own after the vampires declined. They use them as protection.

[ There's a little dusting of warmth from Gray as he takes her hand again, but a little bit of contentment too. Handholding... There are worse things in the world. ]

Ah. Aliens...

[ She'd be a lot more alarmed by this if she hadn't already heard of aliens existing in someone else's version of Earth. And what are all of them here if not aliens from other worlds??

(Still, she kind of wants to see her own home aliens with her own eyes. From a safe distance, in a peaceful context.) ]

Did you get to see the aliens yourself?

[Gray... Soft... 🥹 This is not helping his heterosexuality, unfortunately, but it's fine because he will continue to ignore that for a long time.

MORE IMPORTANT THINGS ARE HAPPENING! Like a discussion.]

Yes. They fought the vampires for a few millennia.

[He does not say anything about it, of course, but this would mean D is at least two thousand years old.

Even though he is a lot older than that...... It's fine.]

[ M... Maybe D only saw the tail end of the vampire v. alien war. Though there's still some discrepancy, given that humans must have needed some time to move back in after the vampires' decline.

D's actual age is a mystery, but (sorry) Gray is interested in other things before that. ]

What were the aliens like? In my time, people imagined them as gray men with giant black eyes...

[ She uses her free hand to trace a giant circle accordingly on her face. ]

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