taxfest log | open

[sterngaze]

Who: Alenroux residents and visitors!
What: It's Taxfest: an Abadaran holy day celebrating the local community on the day taxes are collected
Where: The settlement in Alenroux
When: Mid April (Pelu)
Warnings: None expected (Warn as appropriate in headers!)

A HOLY DAY FOR TAXES

Every spring, after last year’s profits have been tallied and Alenroux’s snowy winter has melted away, the time comes for the local citizens to bequeath a portion of their earnings back to the growing little town; it’s tax season.

Over the past century, a tradition has grown in the quaint little settlement, influenced by the local church of Abadar: the holy celebration of Taxfest. On this special day, citizens celebrate the town, each other, and the future they hope to build together. It is a day for business, but also for contemplation, as priests cite the public works the citizens’ past contributions have funded and speak on those planned in coming years.

The business of the day is conducted in person. Rather than mailing cheques, residents hand theirs directly to collectors who go door to door all throughout the day, each accompanied by one of the temple priests or acolytes, who observe to ensure the proceedings are respectful and just. Abadar’s clergy thank each citizen for their contributions, offer comfort to the poor, and hear any concerns or suggestions about how the money should be best used.

Throughout the day, tax collectors from the town can be seen accompanied by white-robed acolytes, or priests in yellow-trimmed raiment. Aside from these busy individuals, most of the town’s folk spend their day on leisure, having earned a respite from the last year’s labours.

EVENING AFTERNOON FESTIVITIES

Traditionally, the festivities of Taxfest would begin with sunset. Due to Alenroux’s 48-hour day–night cycles, however, business is typically concluded well before noon, and the day’s celebrations begin when the sun is still high in the sky. Just as the morning had been dedicated to reflection on the year’s efforts, so the rest of the day is spent in celebration. Local tradition dictates that partying hard on Taxfest both honours the work of the past year and brings good luck in the one to come, so locals and visitors alike are encouraged to let their hair down and enjoy themselves thoroughly.

Throughout the town, entertainment and refreshments are on offer, organized by the Abadar’s temple and provided by local businesses. Offerings vary by neighbourhood, and over the years different parts of town have become a little competitive over who can throw the best festival celebration. Priests officially begin the festivities with a brief dedication to Abadar, to Alenroux’s town and to its people, and the rest of the day is devoted solely to merriment.

On the town’s eastern side, a spacious park hosts a cheerful, whirling mass of dancers in groups or in pairs, dancing to the tunes of talented musicians from around town. Food and drink stalls line the perimeter, luring people from their revels with sweet and savoury scents.

One of the stalls, selling little sweet buns with coins stamped on them, swears it’s good luck to find someone bearing a coloured token matching one you find inside your own bun. (Not all the buns have tokens, of course, so better buy a few!) Those with matching tokens will feel more trust and closeness with their matched person for the rest of the festival.

A broad plaza on the town’s west side sports a slightly more carnival air, with entertainers and game stalls taking up much of the available space, some offering rather strange prizes. One of the games, involving a spinning wheel covered with paper balloons, advertises a free drink at the associated tavern for anyone who can hit five balloons without hitting any “bad” ones. Bad balloons will burst in a puff of coloured smoke, causing a minor magic effect lasting for the next hour:

• Higher or lower voice
• Slight intoxication
• Ability to blow smoke or bubbles
• Small objects you hold float away (for a while) if released
• Small objects you touch stick to you as though magnetic
• Other harmless, temporary effects (Pick your own!)

In front of Abadar’s church, the clergy themselves host a cheerful (if quite obviously religious) celebration with tables of food and a hearty ration of wine for everyone in attendance. This year, it seems the clergy member to bless the wine was over-zealous, as partaking may instill feelings of contemplation even in those disinclined to melancholy. Hymns to Abadar are sung, and everyone who attends is given a token for an extra wine ration, which can be traded in by those who attend a church service within the next month.

Comments

[wolof]

I should hope so, my style is perfect.

[ She says, with all of the confidence of someone who really had been told that they were the best thing since sliced bread, and nobody had ever told them otherwise. Really? A bad thing to do, since humility was not something Akua had ever felt even once in her life.

Her lips quirked slightly, a flash of a smile. ]

I don't think we've had the pleasure thus far. Zenith, then?

[ she kept fairly good tracks on everyone else, after all. ]

You may call me Akua.

Though you'll forgive me for my doubt, hm? I'm a suspicious woman by nature.

[semicharmed]

[ Matt can achieve a certain level of supernal confidence, but it's typically in the midst of spellcasting. Out in normal life, he can only dream of manifesting Akua's rizz. ]

Zenith, [ he agrees. ] Um, I try not to get too wrapped up in partisanship, though. One of the things I like about Alenroux ... a bit less pressure.

[ He trails off, as if about to say something else. But he's not sure he should immediately launch into do you have a minute to hear the good word of the looming threat of Oblivion, especially with someone he's only 70% sure is a Shard-Bearer. ]

Pleased to meet you, Akua, [ is what he settles on. He smiles again. ] And don't worry about it. I'd never try to get someone to go against their nature. Besides, uh ... it's definitely been intense around here since I arrived. Can't begrudge anyone a little caution.

[wolof]

Well, it is nearing the end of the war. [ She said with a shrug of her shoulders. ] If things were not intense, it would not be worth fighting for. [ She does not seem to mind he is Zenith, or rather... Akua was an odd one, who saw enemies as enemies only if it was personal, and only a few at this point had escalated the fight to match that. Many more were gone, the only one who came close was Amos, and she had never been able to describe the... way he seemed to expect her to choose otherwise, and how he always seemed annoyed that she had not.

Ah, well. Her mind was on Meridian more and more lately, considering the actions she took, but she had not ascended higher for a reason. ]

Though I think you will find that amongst either faction, if you do not get a bit invested, you likely will make enemies from both sides, I am afraid. [ She reached out to pat his cheek. ]

Only a few of us can look away from the battlefield to properly focus on other things, when the battles are not running.

Though you are in good company now, do not fret.

[semicharmed]

[ There's one question answered, at least.

Akua's touch sets off a little spark of push, pull. A psychic itch, one he wants to feel again just so he can figure it out. The sweet buns quiver slightly where they float. And Matt's lips twitch into a mordant smile. ]

I'm invested in what matters to me, [ he says. Polite, but with a hint of distance now. Matt knows the stakes are high, but this isn't the first time factional rah-rah-ing has come up in conversation. The last people who cared this much about his investment in anything were his parents, and look how that turned out. I care, he wants to insist. I care about all of you. ] That definitely includes good company.

What are you focusing on off the battlefield, if I can ask?

[wolof]

[ Akua may be no high level meridian, but she has been involved in war for... So long that it's almost instinct to focus on it. She will never be focused on the people, on her allies, in the same way that people like Matt — or her own Cat — would be. It simply was not the way of things, she was a high-level thinker, a creator.

But the act of war... she actually greatly enjoyed.

Unfortunately. ]

Magic, of course, though they do go hand in hand. Perhaps you heard of the great and terrible attack upon Meridian in revenge for Cyrus's death? That was no mere construction, but instead a marvel borne from the minds of magic.

[ She should not be proud of it, but it Was impressive. ]

[semicharmed]

[ Matt's eyebrows arch. ]

The weapon that destroyed the Manor? The ... sunbeam? [ That's as close as he can get to describing it, considering he was asleep when it struck. ] I was just thinking about it the other day, actually. How it must have taken some time to create.

[ Matt doesn't love that the counterattack happened, of course. Now that he's been through an Oracle trial himself, he's even more convinced that the cosmic war they're being asked to wage doesn't need to overlap with earthly geopolitics. But he can't blame Meridian for being prepared, especially since they were right. And he appreciates the targeting of it--both technically and ethically. ]

[wolof]

[ She tipped her head slightly, and her lips curled into a smile that was all teeth and malic. ]

It did take quite some time. Set led the effort, of course, but he could not keep someone like me from putting my hands upon a weapon, and he knew it.

[ A wave of her hand, idle. ] This superweapon was not my first, though it was far more direct than my last.

[ Ok, but the last was an eternal demon summoning gate that used the eternal souls of an entire city and tapped them constantly to create the power while the souls of the city she was the governess was gave their lives to power the first creation of it, and the leftovers were siphoned to create a floating city so.

You know.

This was a lot less work. ]

[semicharmed]

Really.

[ That's for the multiple superweapons, not Set's involvement. Matt remembers hearing something about Set being responsible for the weapon that incapacitated Yima, but more to the point, how far could a war god realistically be from something like that? ]

What brought you to that field? [ he says, plucking another sweet bun out of the air. He pulls it into two pieces, disappointed to see that this one likewise lacks a token. But he takes a small bite and chews. ] Is it something you were always interested in, or ...?

[ For the record, Matt's picturing a teeny tiny Akua in a sandbox, wreaking havoc on a castle full of little plastic toys. ]

[wolof]

[ Her soft laugh was delighted. ]

I'm a Villain, dear. One could no more keep me from doing so than pursuing power, or dominating my foes.

[ Which is to say: that yes, she was always interested in it, and his picture is... startlingly accurate, actually. ]

I come from a long line of them, as well. We are the blood of the first betrayal, and it is how my people thrive.

[semicharmed]

[ Matt can't entirely hear the capitalization. But something of the weight comes through in her words, in blood of the first betrayal. What Matt doesn't know about the Bible could fill the Apocrypha, but that strikes him as--Garden of Edenesque. ]

I'm not used to morality being considered such a central characteristic, [ he muses, before instantly correcting, ] no, sorry, people do that all the time where I come from. I'm not used to anyone admitting it, though.

[ Questions jump to the tip of his tongue, but he stops himself. Redirects: ] Hey, um, can I buy you a drink or something? [ A sheepish smile. ] I'm honestly super curious about all this, but I don't want to make you stand here and recite biographical details. Plus, I should probably set these down at some point.

[ There's a nod towards the other sweet buns, a small heft of the half in his hand. ]