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

[bakedapple]

[ For someone like Link, it isn't a ridiculous explanation at all. It actually works to soothe the suspicion that had momentarily risen in response to earlier, more vague answer, and he visibly relaxes as he listens. ]

Oh... I see.

[ Why does this feel familiar? Quetzalcoatl had told him something similar before, but that was a long time ago and he didn't understand it back then. In this moment, he doesn't remember anything of it, giving rise to this vague sense of familiarity. ]

So that's what you meant by outside the human experience...? [ He tips his head, thinking. ] Where do you go when you're not summoned? Is that related to the pact?

[ Who knows if he'll answer all these questions, but Link is gonna ask them anyway. ]

[kaientai]

[ ryouma smiles and looks relieved, too, but mostly because he feels he's managed to scrape by without getting into too many gritty details. ]

More or less.

[ the following question is unexpected but preferable to the alternative — his experiences are all he has, so that's the easy part; the hows and whys are a lot more difficult to explain. ]

Well, time isn't a straight line, for one thing, and it's not always clear what the problem is. Sometimes, I'll end up somewhere, and the whole thing only takes a few hours or days. Other times, we'll be there for a long time.

[ he doesn't correct himself when he says we, but he doesn't see any reason to when oryou's shard is a part of him. he imagines she'd be soaking right here alongside him, although the other visitors to the hot spring would likely not appreciate the sight of a large orochi coiled up on the bottom. perhaps it's for the best that's an image that only lives in ryouma's mind, then. ]

I suppose you could say the choice I made is why I keep going. I wasn't ready to stop because the work wasn't finished, so I suspect I'll keep at it until it is.

[ he doesn't need to mention that the "work" in question may never be done, and therefore, it's likely he'd sold his soul into an eternity of chasing an impossible dream. that doesn't matter as much as what he can do right now. besides, he knows he's straying dangerously close to something he'd prefer not to as someone who sidesteps sad things at every opportunity. ]

Honestly, you shouldn't think about it too hard! Let's see: I like ships, and I'm not too bad with a sword, and my favourite food is chicken hot pot. [ all important things to know about someone, in his opinion. ] I'm a pretty simple guy when you get right down to it.

[bakedapple]

[ We? Link's ears pick up on the word, and at first, he assumes he'd simply misspoke. But then his eyes catch two glints of light, one on his chest and one near his throat, and the first crazy thought that comes to mind is, Does he have two Shards?

Thereafter, Link watches him with even deeper curiosity than before. Whatever mysterious secret this man has, all that Link is picking up on is allusions and subtext. If he doesn't want to talk about it, he's hardly one to press the issue — he's been doing the exact same side-stepping when it comes to all his problems lately. ]

I'm pretty good with a sword too. I used to be a member of the Royal Guard in my world, and then I became the princess' personal guardian. I like ships... but I prefer horses. And I don't know what chicken hot pot is, but it sounds good. [ he smiles. ] Nice to meet you.

[kaientai]

[ he smiles, relieved that link decides to play along without pointing out what an obvious deflection that was. he's never been great at that, but his tendency to pivot and charge ahead on some other topic makes it more difficult for people to get him to double back anyway. ]

Wow! A princess, huh? Sounds like you're a pretty important guy!

[ so probably better than pretty good with a sword, but ryouma is the last person to call anyone out for being modest about their skills. ]

Hot pot is where you take a big pot and fill it up with meat and vegetables, mushrooms, eggs and other good stuff, and boil it up until it's steaming hot. Then, the best way to have it is with a bunch of other people while you're drinking together, and everybody shares.

It'd be perfect at this time of year, too, since it'll warm you up inside and out.

[bakedapple]

[ Link huffs a laugh and resists the temptation to mumble something self-deprecating. It's only going to invite more intimate questions about himself and the princess, and he came here to forget about all the things that are haunting him. ]

Oh, so... sharing soup with people, basically?

[ That sounds pretty simple? To the degree that it doesn't really require a special word for it. But, maybe there's some specifics or some nuance that he's not picking up on. ]

Soup is always good when it's cold, but during the winter, I like spicy food best. The spicier the better.

[kaientai]

[ ryouma treads lightly on the topic of people's worlds. he knows it to be a sensitive subject for some, regardless of what side they're on, so with no further comment from link, ryouma is content to let it go — now they're even. ]

Yeah! Everyone sits around and eats from the same pot together, and it's a good time. The only problem is someone can grab up all the good stuff if you're not paying attention.

[ it's the presentation that matters most, or at the very least, that's his definition of the difference involved. ]

I haven't had a lot of spicy food, to be honest. I'll have to give it a try the next time I have a chance. I haven't really explored this city all that much yet.