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

[damnpire]

[As expected, he does not offer Yuri the one with only three eclairs inside.

Instead, he keeps holding out the one filled to the brim patiently.]

This one is yours. You have others you can share them with if it's too much for you, don't you? That's fine.

[wolfish]

[ Did D figure out he intended to share with others all along? Yuri can only wonder.

Almost cautiously, he accepts the bag. ]

This is a bit much for just the one spell, you know.

[ Filing D under the nice guy category. ]

[damnpire]

[The excutive decision to say someone like Yuri has to have some friends here. Maybe it had also been the joking about eating a lot of sweets. The spell had been simple, but his love language is acts of service and gift giving.

This is the only way he knows how to say thank you and have it mean something.]

On the Frontier, not many would even waste a spell on someone like me. It's food and useful, so I don't mind.

[wolfish]

...Someone like you, huh?

[ Yuri's heard this sort of talk all too many times, though he can't begin to guess what D means. He's a tall, hauntingly beautiful man. It could be to do with his origins, like where he happened to be born, or something of the sort. Any speculation he could make would be blind. ]

My people, back home, they're all like that. [ They'd all been let down by society, one way or another, living on its margins. It's his fervent hope that will come to an end soon. ] I'll never consider it a waste, so you can call on me if you need a spell or two.

[ He raises one hand to tap his temple, indicating what he means. ]

Besides, you helped Dark a while back, yeah?

[damnpire]

[Yuri's guess isn't too far from the truth of it, honestly. Close enough. He's not sure if he's sad hearing Yuri's people are like that. Is it weird he hopes all that would come to an end, too, even if he didn't know them?

Fire Emblem: D Hopes.]

I'll keep you in mind.

[So Yuri doesn't think he isn't appreciative of the offer. As if Yuri would ever think any of that after all of this. He pauses long enough to consider what Yuri means.]

Yes. My name is D.

[wolfish]

D, right. [ It must stand for something, but as a fake name enjoyer, he won't ask. ] Good to put a face to a...voice.

[ What else can they call thinking at each other? Let's go with that. ]

And thanks for the treats. I know a couple guys who can help me ensure they don't go to waste.

[ Because wasting food is essentially a sin. ]

[damnpire]

He was a nuisance sometimes, but he didn't seem as bad as he made himself out to be.

[Good to put a face with a mind palace. D nods his head in acknowledgement and... sort of formal greeting to Yuri.]

So you do have some people to share it with.

[He's glad he didn't just shovel nine eclairs off onto one guy.]

[wolfish]

I live with Byleth, and now Shez does too, if you're acquainted.

[ Yuri is reasonably sure Byleth knows D, but he can't say with reasonable certainty when it comes to Shez. Byleth alone could probably eat nine eclairs... Already, he's mentally allocated the eclairs he was given based on the knowledge that one of his friends is a bottomless pit.

One will be enough for himself, he thinks. ]

Dark treated me decently, even in areas I didn't expect, so I'd agree with you. Hope he got back to Yoko, somehow.

[damnpire]

[BYLETH........ His AU self.]

I'm sure he did, if this place doesn't simply hold people in stasis.

[He'll bank on the good rather than the bad... Carefully, he digs around his body somewhere beneath the long cape, one-handed, of course.

After a moment, he pulls out several papers trifolded together. He offers it to Yuri as well. The only thing on the outside are the words, The Dragon of Darkness.

?????]

Would you mind giving this to Byleth?

[wolfish]

[ They can only hope. It's difficult, not knowing what became of someone. One day he's plying a man with homemade muffins and the next he's simply vanished.

Yuri sets the thought aside as D offers him the papers. From those three words alone... ]

He got you writing too, huh?

[ Not that Byleth had tried to compel him, really. Yuri dutifully accepts the papers, tucking them into a pocket with great care. ]

I'll be sure to pass this along to him, with your regards.

[ And several eclairs he will now say are from D. ]

[damnpire]

[Byleth has a real mean persuasion ability somehow. The charisma that's so damn bad it loops back around to making it one of the highest stats somehow. The bad, yet awful endearing charisma.]

It seemed as if he greatly enjoyed reading and writing stories.

[So D simply thought he'd... give Byleth something to read as a kind of friendly gift. Not that D thinks his writing is exceptional by any means. However, Byleth did not strike him as the kind of person who gave a damn how bad the attempt was.

He isn't sure he wants Byleth to put a name to the silly stories (OR ECLAIRS), but... doing it this way, through Yuri, there's no helping it. D lowers the brim of the hat in a nod.]

Thank you.

[wolfish]

[ Byleth certainly has that way about him... And he's not even spamming teatimes in his timeline. ]

You're right about that.

[ It's something Yuri has observed firsthand. Byleth puts a great deal of time and thought into his writing and his library of books he'd read since coming here spoke for itself. To that end, he can safely confirm that D is correct.

Moreover, he's sure that Byleth will enjoy the surprise. Surely D will hear about that later on. ]

Well then, I'd best see to delivering these.

[damnpire]

[D's head lowers once more in acknowledgement and understanding.]

I hope you all enjoy them.

[He motions toward the door with his hand and his own bag of three eclairs. Yuri may leave first.]

Your spell worked, but... just in case.

[He doesn't want to drop all these eclairs in an attempt to grapple Yuri's poor hand even though it probably wouldn't happen because of the nice antihistamine spell. BUT THIS PLACE IS RUDE SOMETIMES, he has so little trust.]

[wolfish]

Just in case.

[ Yuri agrees... But he pauses at the door to lob the spell at D once again, just to maximize its effective time for him. The guy shouldn't have to latch onto the nearest passerby against his will.

With that, he offers the man a jaunty little salute and ducks out of the store to hurry down the street. ]