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

[tattooism]

[Though she has a keen eye, and doesn't need more than a second to glance at the paper she is shown in order to find her name, Kiritsubo makes a cute little show of leaning in close to look for it, pursing her lips and using an elegant finger and perfectly painted nail to search the text.]

Hmmmm... There I am.

[But strangely, she pulls her finger from the card before he can actually see which of the squares she is pointing at. Because it's far more entertaining to her to feign a bit of ignorance regarding their acquaintance. Technically... She did not know what the people who she spoke to via Communion looked like, unless they intentionally projected their image. But the voice was right... whereas hers is slightly shifted by the form she has taken, the shape of falsely created vocal cords and throat and tongue. It gives her enough room to smile- as if cheap lines like that worked on her.]

I think we might have met, you seem familiar...

[Thinking back on that conversation, and the somewhat amusing misunderstanding they'd had... She cannot help but tease with a,]

- Oh! At Madam Dee's, right?

[sheezit]

[ Well, that was... a lightning fast pointing of names, if she did in fact point at all! And he's pretty quick, himself, but... guess he can let that slide for now. ]

Hmmm... no, I don't think that was it. [ That is, they may have crossed paths at Madam Dee's, but: ] I mean, you seem to know who I am, yet I don't remember seeing you around before-- and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't forget a face like that. [ Shez no. ] It's more like... I dunno, your presence?

[ Saying it out loud actually seems to help him process, like something just clicks, the first rays of realization dawning upon his eyes. ]

Ah, wait-- maybe we've talked over Communion before?

[tattooism]

Have we?

[It's a shame that Madame Dee was the one hosting this little bingo game with her stall set up outside... She thinks she would have preferred a more flustered reaction from the implication they might have run into each other in the brothel. She thinks he could be that type... If he actually knew what they were talking about this time. Because when they'd spoken on Communion...]

Oh... I suppose your voice is a bit familiar...

[She makes no comment about her face because... of course no one would forget it??? That's a given, when she wasn't actually trying to hide. She actually hadn't bothered to shift her vocal cords much, she sounded close to the same she had when they'd "spoken" in each others' minds.]

We didn't talk about duel wielding, did we... ?

[Completely careless with physical boundaries, she reaches forward... to snag her finger in the waistband of his trousers, tugging on them suggestively as she looked... distinctively at his crotch.]

You look like you only have one...

[sheezit]

[ To Kiritsubo's dismay, Shez is not the type to get flustered at the mere implication of a sexual encounter, so even if they had met in the brothel, it wouldn't have been a big deal. As long as all involved parties are in agreement and being treated fairly, sex work is just work, no shame in offering nor contracting such services.

But if she wants to have him flustered... then invading his personal space to this extent is quite effective, yes.

Almost as much as her following words, the slow-dawning realization in his eyes now a midday sunrise. ]

Ah, you're--!

[ Okay, okay, just let him... take a careful step aside, please let go of his waistband, miss... We good now?? ]

Ugh, listen-- [ Give him another minute to collect himself, running a hand up his face and pushing his bangs back-- which only works to highlight the color of both his cheeks, but pay no attention to it! ] --I'm really sorry about that, okay? I didn't mean to be misleading or anything, I just thought you were talking about something else entirely!

[ Can you really blame him though? It's a lot more likely that someone can dual wield swords than spontaneously growing a second cock! ]

[tattooism]

[... Mmm, she still got there ♡.

Kiritsubo laughs, but... she doesn't actually let go of his waistband? Weird, because she looks fit, sure, but she doesn't look particularly strong, and her figure is more svelte than muscular or particularly capable of digging her heels in to the ground to stop a man from moving away from her. Instead... She just smiles, looking completely unbothered by his fluster and if anything... Amused.

Like she thinks it's cute that he could be so stupid as to carry on talking about swords while she'd been talking about sex.]

That became apparent to me, yes~

[But she'd grown tired of dueling and testing her strength on the battlefield centuries ago. Honestly, it had always been more of her lover's thing than hers.]

But where are you going... ? Didn't you want to get "bingo"... ?

[sheezit]

[ Listen. He's a cute sort of idiot, yes, but you can't blame a mercenary for being overly excited over the prospect of showing off his (combat) skills and engaging in a good challenge! He's thirsty for battle, not booty!

The same visibly can't be said about Kiritsubo, though, and he does another half attempt at tugging himself free from her clutches before she makes her point. Ah, right. ]

I... did, yeah.

[ What he doesn't want is to start another Misleading Incident, though-- he can live with the teasing over an honest mistake, sure, but he'd rather make himself clear when possible, so: ]

But just so we're clear: this is a kiss bingo, okay? How about we keep this simple and above the waist?

[ And in return, he won't try to flee the premises, so! There's no need to hold him in place-- or worse, risk indecent exposure...! ]

[tattooism]

[That is where Shez might be wrong. She definitely, definitely can blame him, especially when she'd been looking for a good fuck at the time. To think, he did not even have the decency to turn his mind away from blades... They were interesting enough, she supposed, she'd spent most of the 16th century watching bloodshed, but... It just wasn't her thing, close combat.

At least, not with steel.]

Fine, fine~

[She can start easy. By tugging on his waistband to urge him close enough that she can drape her arms over his shoulders instead, it's above the waist!, her lips curling into an inviting (and maybe slightly predatory) smile.]

So are you kissing me... ? Or am I kissing you?

[It might be a trick question.]

[sheezit]

[ ... yeah, okay, this is above the waist all right, but maybe he'll have to be more specific next time. This one may be young (looking), but he wasn't wrong about the cougar older woman vibe he got from their Communion before.

(He was only in school for a couple of weeks, but somehow he's reminded of professor Manuela.) ]

Oh, uhh-- [ As he searches for his eloquence, his eyes try to evade hers, only to... land below her clavicles instead. Yeah, okay, looking right back up! ] Since we're both on each other's cards, I guess it should be a mutual thing? Haven't really done this before though.

[ A beat. ]

Ah-- I mean I've never done kiss bingos, that is!

[ He has kissed people before, but the last thing he wants is to give her the impression he hasn't. He gets the feeling that would only further fuel her ruthless ways... ]

[tattooism]

[It's a fine, delicate clavicle... very pale, very inviting... leading into a plush swell, a softly heaving bosom... Mainly because she had chosen a shape today precisely to be stimulating, to complete this little game of bingo all the easier. So he really cannot be blamed for being a little... flustered.]

I've played games like this before...

[Once or twice. That's likely why it seems so natural, so seamless, when her fingers run through his hair and coax the line of his jaw to angle just... so...]

But let's call it "mutual", sure~

[Even if she might seem far too confident and unbothered as she slides up against his chest, finding his mouth to press a slow, plush kiss to the lips he swears are not being put to use for the first time.]

[sheezit]

[ Why does it feel like his experience is being put to the test here...

Despite the minor surprise from just how comfortable she seems with casually approaching a near stranger for a kiss, Shez is quick to pull off a recovery-- because, no, this is in fact not his first time. And while he would have chosen to go for a cheek or even a kiss on her knuckles, he can deal with something a little more... untoward such as this.

(Or: he ain't afraid of you, man-eater!)

For now, he settles for returning the kiss in kind, with soft presses of his parted lips. His hand may not be as daring as hers, his touch not as intimate, but he still splays his palm on her arm, then slides it all the way to her back, its twin lightly resting upon the side of her waist. ]

[tattooism]

[Because it is ♡.

His new friend seems content enough that he is willing to play the game, afraid or not. Even if this is only a fraction of her usual desire... Well, she doesn't want to scare him off too quickly. Some mortals just found kissing strangers or kissing in the street to be scandalous enough.

Shez's kiss is soft. There comes a moment soon where most would take the natural gap to breathe to pull away, perhaps to smile or laugh nervously or even check a box off their bingo card... But Kiritsubo presses in for more, throwing her arms around his neck and taking advantage of parted lips to slip in her tongue (along with the somehow-cold, crystalline "piercing" on it) and take the next surge of the battle to his domain.]

[sheezit]

[ ... oh, he's being tested all right.

The arms around his neck are unexpected, and there's an oomph of surprise muffled into the kiss, but he doesn't otherwise try to stop her-- because he recognizes a challenge when he sees one, and he never backs down from it, not even when he's way in over his head. Which isn't the case right now.

If he were a noble or something higher up the hierarchy, perhaps he would be more scandalized to be kissing a near stranger in public, and to such depth, on top of it -- he can practically hear Dimitri calling it untoward! -- but as a mercenary, he isn't tied down to such notions of propriety. So he returns her kiss with gusto, undeterred even by the (oddly metallic?) taste of a nub in her tongue, lips more openly parted to both welcome and meet her in kind, his pressing and pulling a tad less soft. His hand on her moves lower, to the small of her back, fingers clutching on tight.

(In the back of his mind, he remembers something he read in one of Byleth's favorite novels. "Tongues battling for dominance" has never sounded more appropriate. ]

[tattooism]

[With the embrace and the slide of arms around his neck comes so much more. The soft, full swell of breasts pressed against his chest, the slight vibrations of a hum, the warmth of another (everywhere but that strangely cold "piercing" that almost seems to taste of... what was that?), and the thump of a heartbeat. If he does not withdraw, then Kiritsubo will kiss him so thoroughly, so long, that they grow breathless, and then, only then...

Does she withdraw just enough to breathe, her lips still close enough to brush against his when she whispers,]

Sure you want to keep this above the waist... ? You're better with your tongue than I imagined~

[... If he hears an implication in there, well. That would surely be his perverse mind.]