event: a gentle festival

[thestewards]

we're all just working pieces trying to fit somewhere
We wander 'round in circles and we talk in squares

► The OOC plotting post for this event can be found here.

► Direct all questions to the mods at this link.

► All NPCs except for Queen Fayura can be met at this event. Use their top-levels in the plotting post if you'd like a thread with them for this event. For your convenience, you can reach out here: Allairavar, Verim, Loren, Niall, Grejor, and Raya. They may choose to wander into your threads should you not plan anything out with them, too.

PARTY PLANNING
Dawn arrives and brings with it another group of Strangers. Unlike the first group, you wake to a comfortable bed and cheery birdsong. Unlike the second group, you are expected. As you rise, a vase with spring flowers appears on the table beside your bed. Tucked beneath the vase, you find a message of welcome inviting you to join the Queen and her residence for breakfast.

Following directions given by footmen throughout the residence’s winding halls, you make your way toward breakfast, only to find that breakfast is a beautiful disaster.

Maids and footmen rush around you, choreographed by a red haired witch standing on a chair in the middle of the entry hall. She wears an apron and a look of fierce concentration. Beside her, a list floats in the air. Pinned to her hair, her Tiger Eye Jewel flashes and swirls with power. You suspect you should just sneak out, but she’s too observant.

“You there!”

You freeze. Maybe you had a mother with eyes in the back of her head who always knew where you were. Maybe that was a teacher or some other kind of mentor. Regardless, you know this voice. You know this tone. This is a person harried and pressed, and she probably doesn’t care that you haven’t eaten breakfast yet.

“Yes, you! Stranger!”

You turn toward her and abruptly find your arms full of banners. Closer inspection will reveal each flag sewn to the cord bears a different symbol: one for the Guilds (a hexagon with circles at each joint), the Ebon Council (a pair of Jewels side by side), and Fayura’s Court (a strange, spiraling spear against a mountain peak); a sun and a moon; a cloud flush with rain and lightning; and a sprouting plant.

“Make sure those get hung on the eaves outsi—no, I haven’t seen the Lady, Carlisle, but if you—”

A Blood male has distracted her, but you’re left with the distinct impression that if you don’t hang these banners, the Head Housekeeper will hunt you down (you would be correct). Not to worry: you’re not the only Stranger living in the residence, and it takes you little time to locate someone else with an equally bomb-blasted look on their face to help you help the residence prepare for the spring festival! There are flags to be hung, simple breads to be baked, stalls to be built in the Bazaar, and so much more. Your hands work, and so you work.


HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL
At sundown, the festival begins in earnest: people take to the streets in every section of the city, pouring into the Old Town Bazaar with rosy cheeks and broad smiles. The spring festival will last for the next six days. Three days to celebrate, and three days to work.

All around the city, banners hang from and between homes and businesses. Some fluttering banners bear flags emblazoned with only the Guilds’ symbol or the Council’s or the Court’s, and there are far more Guild banners than any other—a result of the Strangers’ providing support to the Guilds no doubt. But mixed among them are flags bearing both the Queen’s mountain, too, just not as many, and the only place the Council’s flags hang are over Blood homes.

As you make your way through the Bazaar, you hear…

A young landen man: I’ve heard the Queen is going to honor the Earth Mother and Father Sky during planting in a few days, and—
His companion, an older woman: The Blood honor only death and their Darkness. What does she care for our beliefs?

A Blood farmer: …kind of gift. Don’t quite know what to make of a Queen giving anything.
A landen farmer: Anything to help the crops grow. The Guilds mean well, but the land is overworked.

An excited little girl: —ride the unicorn, mommy! There’s a unicorn and a dragon and a centaur and a—

Near the pavilion at the heart of the Bazaar, the landen Guilds have erected technological wonders. A carousel of glittering bronze and metal lights up the night with rainbow colors. Music spills out of it, cheerful and bright as its three rings turn in lazy revolutions. Unicorns and dragons and centaurs and mermaids stand as mounts for the young and old. Nearby, the Elektriline Guild prepares a light show, projecting fantastical shapes in dazzling colors on the sides of buildings and into the night sky itself. Around the park to the south of the Bazaar, the Transport Guild has set up a racing track for unicycles and tricycles.

Booths with games line the streets. Knock down the glass bottles! Throw the ring around the spoke! Win prizes to dazzle your loved ones and delight your children!

While food has certainly been scarce, the bakeries and charcuteries have brought out their best fare at surprisingly reasonable prices. This is a time to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and celebrate the city will.

While the Blood dress in nice clothes, the landens bring out costumes. As is tradition, some dress as Father Sky, wearing crowns of gold and flowing robes of white. Others cloak themselves in the vestments of Mother Earth: wearing costumes of green and brown, painting vines over their faces to disguise themselves and crowning themselves in garlands of crocuses and tulips. Whispers through the Bazaar say the Queen is among them, disguised as Mother Earth.


SOWING THE FUTURE
The fourth morning of the festival, the entire city rises with the dawn. Over the past three days, a strange rumor wound its way through Draega: Fayura will join the planting to give a gift unique to the Queens of the Blood.

Members of the Ebon Council and the Guilds organize groups, directing the bodies of the entire city to go to this farm or that as they step out from behind Draega’s tall, protective walls. But before you are dismissed to help till the land or plant grain seeds, you join a larger crowd at a nearby farm. The Blood airwalk, standing above the landen crowds to gain a better view.

At the head of a recently tilled field, Queen Fayura stands with a landen farmer. He grasps his hat, wringing it fiercely in his hands as her Steward, Master of the Guard, and Consort stand guard behind her. Dressed in greens and browns, crowned in a garland of crocuses that drips dried stalks of wheat down her hair, she kneels before a bucket. She calls in a knife. When she speaks, she doesn’t raise her voice, but Craft projects it across the assembled onlookers. “Blood sings to blood. This is a gift: freely offered,” she says. “Freely given.” Bright red blood blooms across her palm as she drags the blade through skin. Vanishing the knife, she closes her fist and squeezes, allowing the blood to fall into the bucket of water and mix with it.

Her Consort heals her wound when she holds out her hand, and then he steps back. She rises, picking up the bucket and taking hold of the ladle on the ground beside it. Her voice lifts in song. Though the language is unrecognizable, the melody is beautiful and full of the vibrant hope of spring. She sings as she walks along the furrows, sprinkling bloodied water on the land. Blood and Strangers alike feel the pull of magic as something in the earth itself unfurls, shuddering awake at the call of the Queen’s blood.

For the next three days, nearly every man, woman, and child in Draega assists with the planting. Children do small, simple tasks, and the older children watch over the younger ones. The adults drag plows through the warming land and spread seeds in the furrows the plows create. Queen Fayura visits each field in turn, and planting doesn’t begin until she’s sprinkled her water over the earth. Throughout the day, her vibrant song echoes around the city, and a few Blood girls, too young to yet wear a Jewel, take up the song and hum along with it.

You would do well to help the farmers. You may not have a strong arm or strong back, but there’s planting to be done and people to organize, feed, and care for.


AIR TIME
Whether you catch the news on a Far-caster in the city or you’re spinning the dial on your own device, you’ll hear…

etiquette with evandra and aren
[Evandra's voice is a little bit rough and a little bit husky, the kind of voice that gives bad ideas to young men and headaches to fathers.] …do we make of a Warlord Prince’s reaction to his Queen’s blood?

[Aren, whose voice is typically chipper and bright, sounds today much more seriously than usual.] It’s a dangerous thing. Elemental, you might say. Like a storm. Every Prince is dangerous when his Lady’s blood spills.

[Evandra:] So, are we in danger when the Queen does whatever ritual she’s doing?

[Aren:] No. The Blood put great importance on, well, blood. It’s the memory’s river. Power sings in blood. It carries strength and Craft. I’ve never seen a Queen do anything like this before, but her Princes—and her court—treat it like ceremony. And it probably is.

the weather
[A soft-spoken man’s voice rumbles out of the Far-caster. He’s pleasant to listen to, with a soothing cadence to his voice.] …continued rains with intermittent sunshine over the next few days as the days grow steadily warmer. Remember that rains coming out of Askavi are dangerous to your health, and salves for lesions from exposure can be purchased from the Medicos at…

the news
[Garret speaks at his brisk pace, hurried and harried as though he has too much to say and not enough time to say it.] A new development in the story of the young landen man who shot and killed Councilwoman Vera last month: the Strangers have influenced the Queen to bring together a Tribunal not of other Queens—

[Wilt, as usual, is put upon and nasally.] As though there are many of those to go around.

[Garret, continuing as though Wilt didn’t interrupt him:] —but of the landen man’s peers, both landen and Blood.

[Wilt, sighing:] That’s correct, Garret. It seems this Tribunal of three landens and three Blood will listen to the young man’s account, as well as the stories of other witnesses, and determine a suitable punishment. This will be presented to the Queen, and she will carry out the sentence.

[Garret:] Looking now to the warming weather and what that means for trade with the mercenary settlements outside of Draega—

Comments

[mollymocked]

[The crowd doesn't seem to mind as Molly gently jostles his way to be beside Piper in line- either figuring he's earned the right to cut or that she was holding the space for him anyway. It makes it easier for him to keep talking to her without having to speak from the sidelines. ]

Honestly, that's probably the most comfortable thing worlds could have in common. I wouldn't know what to do with a place where everyone was nice. I can deal with arseholes. You can't con and cheat nice people. That's just mean and unnecessary.

[inducings]

[ She gives him a wry glance, still a little... aggravated? shaken? furious? over the whole thing. ]

Only a nice person would say that.

[mollymocked]

A nice person who cons and cheats. [He pats her shoulder.] That sounds about right. How're you doing? You look like you want to find them and rob them blind and maybe kick their arses a little bit.

[inducings]

[ Robbing them hadn't occurred to her, and it was interesting to her that was the first thing Molly came up with but -- it fit.

She gives him a wry, tight little smile. ]

If I kicked the teeth in of every guy who acted like a total jerk, dentists would start paying me a commission fee.

[ ...now, Piper. Had Molly said anything kicking teeth in? Calm down, girl. ]

And it wouldn't change anything.

[ Besides make her feel a little better, less small and dirty.

But it wasn't a good idea to introduce violence into a situation that was only words, that had only gotten her in trouble in the past. (Granted, that was before she'd known about her powers, but... still not a good idea. ]

[mollymocked]

[On the contrary, Molly is delighted by her violent description. Some people- especially hecklers who hit on nice girls- deserve to have their teeth kicked in. The twins had their share of bad experiences with men wanting to try their luck with cute halfling contortionists, and while Yasha and Ornna could have stepped in to put the fear of powerful women into them, the Knot sisters came from the school of hard knocks, and learned how to knock right back from it.

But... She is right. There's towns he and the rest of the circus are barred from because of that kind of action, and things are... precarious right now, despite the atmosphere.] That's fair. It's hard to change the shitty attitudes of people with small minds and smaller dicks.

[inducings]

[ Piper snorts, choking back a laugh. She ducks her head, smiling. ]

How could you even find them to compare?

[ Gods, she still wants to beat them up. Really badly. But... she needs to find a way to be not upset, because if Jason sees her like this...

She rakes both hands through her unevenly chopped and randomly braided hair as if physically trying to shake off that feeling. She tries to pick a different topic to focus on... but can't really think of anything profound or interesting to say besides - ]

So... anyway. How do you like the festival?

[mollymocked]

Oh, a worldly person can just tell. [And that's all he needs to say about that, especially with the topic change. It brightens the darker corners of that smug attitude of his (the parts that would delight in assholes getting theirs), and brings him back around to childlike glee.]

Amazing. I can't say it's the best festival I've been to, but it's certainly a change in atmosphere I desperately needed. And look at this! [He points to the carousel that they're now getting closer to.] We didn't have anything like that where I came from. What's it do besides go in a circle? What's the point of it? I don't know! Isn't that exciting?

[worldly, yet... an actual two year old.]

[inducings]

[ Childlike glee wrapped up in so much purple and shiny baubles and just... everything. Molly very clearly didn't mind being the center of attention. It was engaging, in a way, and helped Piper move away from emotions she'd identified as unhelpful. (Valid, yes, helpful, no.) ]

The carousel? [ She smiles a little. ] It goes in a circle, but the horses also go up and down. It's... not really meant to do anything, at least... not in my world, anyway. It's meant for kids to have fun and just... admire the horses, I guess?

[mollymocked]

They are very nice horses- very well painted. And I'm into the unicorns. I absolutely hope that's what they really look like.

[One can't believe everything Jester tells you, but Molly wants to believe she's right about the unicorns and darn it why wouldn't they be real??]

[inducings]

Well... [ hesitating for a moment, but then - he had come over to help her and... ] ...I don't know about unicorns. But pegasi do look a little bit like that.

[ She points to a winged horse, its wings a deeper black than the rest of its body. ] The wings should be bigger, though.

[mollymocked]

[Molly's eyes, lacking pupils and as deep and red as blood pools, widen in even more manic glee. It's hard to imagine that something that seems so empty could be filled with such childlike joy and let here it is- the living proof. Molly has an intimidating, scary look to him right up until he gets excited.]

...Have you ridden one before?

[inducings]

[ Piper nods, giving a small smile. Molly's reaction is reassuring and she's glad she took the risk. ]

Yeah, although it's not like I knew they were real until this past year. But - they're pretty amazing.

[mollymocked]

Many, many things that I think most people around here don't realize are real are real where I'm from. [That was a mouthful.] But winged horses... That one's new. I'm not easily impressed by weirdness, but I am absolutely impressed by that. Well done.

[inducings]

[ Man, if he thought pegasus was good...

She shrugs a little, still smiling. ] Always fun to weird someone out with the more pleasant facts of life, I guess?

[ Since, well, no one here was gonna think she was crazy if she told them the truth... probably. ]

Okay, your turn. [ They take a step forward toward a carousel. ] What's a weird thing from your world you think that people won't think are real, but actually is?

[mollymocked]

Oh, gods, that's... Almost everything. Dragons. People seem to think those aren't real for some reason. [He points to himself.] Devils, obviously. You can't have tieflings without devils. It feels like everything I've mentioned no one has heard of or looked at me like I was bloody insane for thinking was common. Orcs and goblins and gnomes and halflings are just people in Exandria, and meanwhile everyone's telling me that most societies are solely human. Even this one!

[He gestures to the throngs of people around them.] It's madness. There's no color.

SO sorry, life got insane. Please lmk if you want to keep going with either thread or drop

[inducings]

[ Devils. Obviously.

Right. Orcs and goblins and gnomes and halfings. Okay.

But that's not as important, really, to the sudden shift in perspective. How strange it must be for him to be the only one of his kind when he is used to being surrounded by such diversity? She knows a little bit of what that's like, what it's like to be the only one who's so obviously different. ]

That's... got to be really weird for you. Like walking into a room with people missing all the time.

[ And she's aware of the interest they're garnering. Two Strangers. And Molly is - in any human-centric society - certainly strange. She hesitates a moment and then risks a little more: ] We have dragons in our world. And monsters. But not devils, not that I know of anyway.

you're okay! i'm fine with keeping going. i love this cr.

[mollymocked]

Exactly. [It bothers him more than he'll let on- the lack of diversity, the fact that human faces blend easily into the crowd, which is both a boon and an annoyance. Is it any wonder he gravitates towards the ones that stand out as clearly as he does?]

Ah... Just the awful ones, then. Mostly. I hear some dragons aren't that bad, but I haven't met any that were personable. You might not even know if you've got devils. They don't tend to... walk around a lot aside from causing tieflings to happen. They've got their own business.

oh good! me too!

[inducings]

[ As the line clears forward, she advances a few steps, turning to Molly for him to come along. ]

Yeah... [ That sounds familiar. Except, you know, gods didn't exactly have the stigma of a devils. She hesitates and then offers. ] I don't know anything about that in my world, at least not for devils. The gods are like that, though. Even though most people don't believe in them anymore.

[mollymocked]

[Molly skips along behind, his tail swishing and catching any person who tries to push in past them in the leg, encouraging them to stay put and let the line continue on without any cuts.]

They don't believe in gods anymore? [Somehow Molly can't focus on anything but that- he's religious in his own way, and he knows a lot of people who are religious.] Those must be some bloody useless gods, then.

[inducings]

[ UM. Piper's torn between wanting to defend and wanting to agree, honestly. ]

I don't know, I think it's a little more complicated than that. A lot of times, people just see what they want to see. And sometimes, people can't handle the truth... at least not on that scale.

[mollymocked]

I say all this because our gods are... Well. I don't wanna say hands on, but it's like I said before. They work through people. You see their work in everything. They let everyone know that they walked the land once and that they're not doing it now because they can't.

[He hakes his head, jingling his jewelry like they're tiny little bells.] It's different everywhere, but it's just baffling that you could have gods and the majority of people just all decided not to believe.

[inducings]

[ Piper listens and thinks over what Molly's said. ] I don't... really know what happened to make it so different. I know that the gods are real, and that thousands of years ago they were a lot more... hands on, I guess? But they're not now. And people tend to forget what's not right in front of them.

[mollymocked]

That might be a problem with the people, then- not the gods. It's crazy what gets lost in the world because people forget. Normally, I'm all for forgetting things, but that's... Well, that's probably too deep a conversation to have during a festival.

[Especially when thy're about to get on the ride.]