2017-12-31: Happy New Year

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  • Log: Happy New Year
  • Cast: Carina Wynne, Jacqueline Barber, Kourin, Margaret, Ethius Hesiod
  • Where: November City - Market Street
  • Date: December 31st, 2017 - January 1st, 2018
  • Summary: The Wynne family invites the Caravan Kinship to participate in a November City New Year's Eve tradition...involving an exploding ball of literal garbage.

=====================<* November City - Market Street *>======================

November City is the greatest and the largest of the Seed Cities. When it appeared after the Night of Falling Stars, it was already a large settlement, built by the survivors of that day quickly. It has since grown enormously, appealing to people in the Badlands in search of some security and the refugees from failed and lost Seed Cities. Market Street, its main thoroughfare, demonstrates this. On the outskirts of the city, shantytowns and shacks pop up along the street, gradually becoming the larger buildings in the heart of November.

The street is named for the huge market that has sprung up across it, occupying the three and four story brick buildings along each side. It's a wide, paved road (a rare thing in the Badlands) and connected to Central Station, where all of the railways come. Here, one can find anything they want. The laissez-faire nature of November City's government makes the black market an open one, and this is one of the few places where ARMs and stolen goods from Aveh and Kislev can be bought with ease.

There are also saloons, taverns, restaurants, and hotels to be found. November City is a true melting pot, where Drifters from across Filgaia mix with foreign merchants and locals of every class. Men wearing suits brush by peasants in homespun, while Drifters and knights bump into each other. The police force usually prevents outright gunfights in the streets, but November City's officials are infamously easy to bribe.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

It's New Year's Eve in November City! And the Wynne family has invited the CaraKin to come enjoy the festivities with them. Market Street has been blocked off for the evening, and some stores (such as Wynne Chester) have set up some table and seats, with a good view of a large... ball... of garbage currently being hefted up on one store's roof.

"499's been pretty crappy to a lot of people," Carina explains, "really every year has its share of straight-up garbage. So every year, on the stroke of midnight, we take this big ball'a crap and blow it to smithereens. Do they do anything like that where you're from?"

She's sitting at the table with an orange-based fruity drink of some sort, watching people dancing to some street music, including her parents. The big event isn't happening just yet, but... soon.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Ah, New Years Eve...Jacqueline had a few fond memories of it, but her past ones had not been what could be called lively. It was nice to see people excited, though, and even better to be invited to it along with friends.

She's not much of a dancer, though, so she's sitting with Carina at one of the tables that had been set up in the streets, a glass of her favorite drink in one of her hands - an slightly alcholic beverage of some variety with cherry and vanilla mixed in.

"Mm...not really. Adlehyde has always been a bit more...on the calm side. Or, at least we were." Jacqueline replies, with a sip of her drink. "Family and friends of the family get together, have a meal and reminisce about the past year, and talk about what their plans for the next are..."

Jacqueline chuckles to herself at that.

"I never could have imagined that 499 would go the way it did..."

<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.

Kourin's quiet, as her usual mannerism lately. "At home...we give thanks to Althena for another year..." she says, then trails off.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here? I have this horrible injury from fighting off train robbers," Margaret says from behind Jay and Carina. The angle of approach and the exact location of a centerpiece has kept her from spotting Kourin.

Margaret is wearing local dress #6 which somehow has an even more plunging neckline, probably to make up for the ruff of some kind of inexpensive fur. She does, indeed, seem to have a splint along her forearm and is carrying a large drink in her uninjured right arm, forlornly.

"What's with the [Ball]?" she asks as she settles down, whatever the answer.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        Ethius is present, in so much that the presence of a suspicious individual who has a penchant for staring, loitering, and speaking in a measured and verbose manner that seems a bit too stiff can be called 'a present.' He's probably only able to even be here because it's been clarified that yes, he is with the Caravan Kinship - even if he seems like an element that just doesn't... gel, precisely.
        Ethius has been offering to assist with matters of setting up decorations. He's been fairly... adamant about that. Is he just in a festive mood, or is there some more nefarious purpose? He hasn't skimmed any small items away to his possession (...yet) for... further study? Through most of the down time this last week it's almost been nothing but him handling holiday decor.
        He never is quite forthcoming as to why. (When is he?)
        "Is that so, Miss Kourin?" Ethius asks, his path coinciding with Kourin's in that sort of sneaky out-of-nowhere fashion as he has - in his hands - some innocuous garbage that peeled off the ball.
        He looks over to Margaret as she asks the question, as though he might have been ready to voice something. Protest? Exposition? Nothing comes of it.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"It's a [Symbolic Ball]," Carina says, not seeming to mind explaining it again even though she just did. She IS still an NPC at heart. She looks at Margaret, grinning, though pauses to boggle a moment. It may be her dress, or maybe more remembering the drama that occurred during the CaraKin social event.

Well, whatever. She shrugs and goes on. "It represents all the crap 499 has given up, and then we blow it all up to crap. Though we gotta use safety features n' such, it's not really the same since Ol' Man Murray's game store caught on shrapnel fire when I was ten."

"Yeah, I bet," she says with a bit of a nervous laugh, in answer to Jay's assessment of 499. "I can't even imagine, to be honest. If anything, you guys probably have way more of a ball of crap to contribute than we do. I think they're still collecting garbage, if you wanna chip in."

<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.

Kourin pauses. "I would not say...despite the difficulties that I have faced...that this year has been anything but the best in my life..."

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline glances behind her as she hears that familiar voice.

Margaret.

They'd had their share of differences, to say the least. She was not her favorite person. However...she wasn't about to turn her away. She glances toward Kourin for a moment, before nodding toward Margaret.

"Robbers? I'm sorry to hear that...do you need any curatives or anything? I have some on me." Jacqueline asks, gesturing to one of the unoccupied seats.

She glances back to Carina then, considering her question.

"No, it's alright. I...hm, I suppose I'm the type who prefers to keep it all with me as a reminder." She replies, shaking her head. For better or worse. Her mind goes back to those words she'd shared with Riesenlied, about being kinder to herself...

...But rather than dwelling on any of that, she offers Kourin a smile.

"Well, I'm glad to have been able to contribute." She says.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret purses her lips at the explanation and also the kibitzing. "Well," she says, as she produces a long pipe from somewhere and starts to gradually get it prepared for sassy luxuration, "You aren't wrong. But if you think about it, aren't most years noted for that?"

She scoffs - but gently - at Jay. "It's been treated. But the bone is cracked enough that they told me to take it easy. Hopefully when I get on the train tomorrow it won't get robbed. There's my new year's wish for you." She pivots the pipe's bowl towards Jay. "If you have a light, though, you'd save me some hassle."

Her eyes turn towards Kourin, but she doesn't speak. Instead she asks Carina, "Forgive me if this is a little -- acerbic. But you do this, despite the risk of blasting your own residences with hot garbage?"

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"Hey, that's good, then! Gotta see the silver linings," Carina tells Kourin with a thumbs-up. Then, to Jay: "Yeah? Well, you do you. A trash collection's a fine and cool thing to have so long as it doesn't start to stench up so bad you can't sleep."

She crosses her arms, looking grim. "And trust me... I know ALL about garbage trash scent stinkin' up your house!!" This statement might be puzzling to those who don't know why there's a 'CLOSED FOR RENOVATION' sign on Wynne Chester's front door.

"That's the beauty of it," she answers Margaret, raising a finger wisely. "EVERY year is super bad for at least someone. So it's a yearly tradition! It's all very catheter." The Althena's Guardswoman then raises a very valid concern, to which Carina just shrugs, once more.

"We gotta find ways to keep it lively in the Market Street community. And like I said, we got security features. There's a NET! And all garbage is handled by trained garbage professionals." She leans in, conspiratorially, "Though to tell the truth, nobody REALLY wants to win the drawing to have the ball on top of their store. It's free advertising but... you know."

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
"But also exploding garbage," Margaret says, nodding along.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"Yes!!" Carina says, eyes wide, "Put it way better than I could."

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Well, I wish you a quick mending then, at least." Jacqueline replies with a nod. "...And hopefully less robbery in your future."

When Margaret asks for a light, Jacqueline nods. One hand reaches down for the pouch of Crests at her waists, reaching in to select the right one, while the other extends towards Margaret's pipe. A second later there's a small spark, just enough to get her lighted as requested.

And then, there's a spark of recognition as what Carina says registers to her.

"...Oh! You meant actual, literal garbage...I thought you meant more...metaphorical garbage." She says. "...No, we deal with our trash regularly, so we don't have any to...contribute, I'm afraid."

Also she'd feel terrible about contributing to, as Margaret put it, the exploding garbage.

"It certainly is...lively..." Jacqueline comments...and then adds. "But there are, ah...barriers, yes?"

The possibility that she may get pelted with flaming garbage in the near future had risen about 0 percent, and she was understandably concerned.

<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.

"Cathartic," murmurs Kourin. She is trying not to draw Margaret's attention...getting into that again would ruin the occasion.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        "I would pay the matter little mind." Ethius pipes in a ways off from Margaret as he's clutching some of the garbage around himself, like a child might a teddy bear. One may hope that he is not about to go stash it inside the CaraKin like he has a number of other highly suspect objects of dubious value or utility - that incident with the rotten churros was already weird enough!!
        He makes no eye contact as he picks up a dropped Christmas-y bulb that has since shattered off the hook it was on.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret takes a starting draw on the pipe and leans her head back to exhale into the air rather than, as she briefly considers, kourin's face. But she considered it. She didn't do it. Her arm hurts.

"Here's a question for you," she asks, her eyes momentarily cutting towards Ethius, then going back to the sky. "Why do we mark the year today? Why not in the spring, or at the end of the harvest season?"

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"Oh yeah, sorry if I got confusing there," Carina tells Jay, on metaphorical VS literal garbage. "Guess there's bit o' both. I mean, he's a proud garbage collector, right? Sorry, didn't catch your name by the way," she tells Ethius. "Carina Wynne." This introduction... may apply to Margaret as well!!

"Yeah, I think they got a symbologist on the case," Carina reassures Jay, taking a sip from her straw, "and that's BESIDES the net. Don't worry, though, there's only been the one incident as far back as I can remember."

"That's the word! Catholic," Carina tells Kourin with a grin. If she's doing it on purpose, she must be a very good actress. (All evidence strongly indicates otherwise.)

"Probably the first calendar guy ran out of calendar here," Carina proposes, in answer to Margaret's question. "Least I think that's how it would go down, if they put me in charge of calendars."

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        There's another awkward pause as the man re-shifts the weight of what he's carrying. Since he's not making eye contact, it is possible that he is missing the idea that he is specifically being asked what the whole deal about all this ever i--
        "I'm afraid I do not have an answer." That was a helpful translation from 'silent and probably ignoring,' wasn't it.

<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.

"Because the Goddess teaches us it is the day we mark as the end of the year," Kourin says stiffly. "A member of her church should know such things."

Oh boy.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Oh, it's okay." Jacqueline replies to Carina with a smile. "But...that does reassure me, at least a little."

...She does not think about that one incident that Carina mentioned. She knows that if she hears about it it's going to get stuck in her head and she won't get comfortable again at all. So, instead, she takes a drink and thinks on Margaret's question.

Why today, specifically?

"Well, I've heard some theories...one states that it has to do with the Leylines. They say that the four Leylines - Muse, Geo, Fray, and Wing - cycle in power with the flow of time. For instance, this is the season where Muse is at its strongest, and with Geo approaching soon as well, it is not long before it will be the optimal time to plant crops. The beginning of the year corresponds to when that cycle begins again." Jacqueline explains, then chuckles sheepishly.

"...I don't know if that's true, but I read it somewhere, and it sounds reasonable!"

And then Kourin says something, and Jacqueline glances to her.

"...Kourin, please." She says. It's not a scolding tone, but she would rather they didn't get into a fight with Margaret here...

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        Ethius halts in his tracks. Some items in the garbage he's carrying drop. He doesn't stop to pick it up. The point he seems to stop coincides with around the end of whatever Carina was saying - which is to say for a while he fails to ONCE AGAIN answer his name in a polite and expedient fashion.
        The perfect kind of person to trust with garbage!!!
        "Ah... you were speaking to me." He says. "My apologies. I was lost in thought." Great! Tell the nice armorsmith your name, Ethi-- "You were saying about... what word, in regards to Calendars?" ...Oh dear.
        "Miss Kourin." Ethius pivots expertly from deflection to a change of subject to who he's speaking to. "Are you saying that the customs coincide in timing, circumstance, and custom?"
        He has since strode in front of the icy fencer. He keeps his gaze level with hers, as though this were the most interesting thing he's heard the whole forever.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
"Well the thing with a calendar is that while the seasons are real, it's sort of an artificial thing, isn't it?" Margaret says to Carina, before visibly halting and slowly turning her head to look towards Kourin.

She takes in a breath through her nose and lets it out.

"Well," she says, "I appreciate your hospitality, and I hope you enjoy the celebration. I'm sure we'll run into each other again," and here Margaret levers herself upwards, collecting her drink to take with her because she may not want to be in the area but she will be damned if she will waste good drink -

"If we don't get horribly killed by bandits or anything, along the way."

Kourin gets a passing glare, but nothing more, as Margaret moves to untangle herself from where she'd sat down.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

Suddenly, things have the potential to get SUPER AWKWARD. Carina's grin freezes.

But Margaret gets up to leave, letting them enjoy the holiday celebration in peace. That's... almost a shame, Carina thinks, but then she hasn't ever gotten into a superfight with her before. It sounds like people here might have? Maybe?? She'll ask later.

She slowly turns her head. "Wow, though, that's... really kinda cool, the leyline thing. I never really got magic and stuff like that, so it's nice to hear from people who do."

Then, to Ethius: "Huuuh, I kind of lost track, actually. Cathedral, I think?" Oh, he's paying attention to Kourin now. Nevermind.

Ssssip. She turns her head again. "Oh hey, guys, look, they're doin' it!" The fuse is lit! The [Ball] is going to blow very soon!!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Thank you. Farewell, Miss Margaret." Jacqueline says with a polite nod of her head. ...She doesn't know if she was leaving because of Kourin, or because of the aforementioned exploding garbage ball, but she was glad they'd had an interaction that didn't end in a fight.

She does take a moment to sort of...recover...but once she does, she offers Carina a smile.

"I've always found sorcery incredibly fascinating. My mother is a rather talented Crest Sorceress, though, so I suppose I got it from her." She comments. And then, Carina says it. Her attention turns toward the <Ball>, and she watches it. She takes a sip of her drink...though the attentive will notice that her other hand had returned to her Crest Pouch.

She was ready to invoke a protective earth pillar.

You know.

...Just in case...

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        Ethius blinks once, eyes turning away from Kourin in the vague direction of the lit-up ball. Looks like he wasn't quite so fast on the trash collecting draw in order to properly get the garbage back on the ball...
        Or maybe he really was trying to hoard it to begin with!! Busted. So busted.
        As long as he stands where he is, though, Kourin might not be able to see the ball. His eyes drift momentarily to where Jacqueline's hand going into her crest pouch.
        Is something bad about to go down?!

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"Moms, right?" Carina says, not taking her eyes off the ball.

Something bad is going to go down for sure, and by that we mean that a BALL OF GARBAGE is about to BLOW UP.

People in the street are no longer dancing. A lot of them have seen enough of these to have a fairly accurate countdown chant going, too. The musicians are providing a drumroll.

The lit fuse makes its way towards at least one stick of dynamite at the center of the ball, and...

BOOM!!

A great ball of flame erupts. The very attentive will notice that flaming debris are caught in netting hardly visible to the naked eye-- This may be where the symbological trickery comes in. There is smoke and applause, and the display took place high enough that any burning stench is minor and ephemeral.

"YEAH! That was a good one!" Carina pumps a fist, having gotten up from her seat. "Happy new year, gang! Actually, make that new CENTURY! Let's hope 500 is a good one!"

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline chuckles, and her eyes turn toward upward toward the <Ball>. Everyone seems to be getting ready for it. Whatever was happening, it will probably be happening soon...

There's a drumroll, and then...

Boom!!

It explodes. Jacqueline jumps a bit...but she isn't pelted with flaming garbage, so she breathes out a sigh of relief and smiles. She had noted it, that subtle flaring up of sorcerous energy...it looks like it did the trick.

Jacqueline stands up, joining in the applause...and then sending a smile Carina's way.

"Indeed, happy new year...may this century herald a better, brighter future for Filgaia..." She says, and then glances toward Kourin. "...And Lunar, too."

...She didn't actually know how Lunar's calendar worked. It might not even be the new year or even a new century yet for them, but...!

She opens her arms, offering a hug to anyone present who might want it(yes, including Ethius, though it was unlikely he would accept it!). No better way to ring in the new year, right?

<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.

Spirit whines and hides under the table at the noise. Kourin accepts hugs.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        The year 500.
        For all that is going wrong, for the real possibility that the true end of days may soon be upon them by ancient forces of unknown origin and unimaginable might, the people of November City alla round them allow themselves to be wrapped up in the festivities. Their cling to normalcy, to an idea that this will always be what happens this time of year - something they can count on.
        Ethius is wordless, as though something else were far beyond his mind as he considers Kourin's lack of answer to what seemed to pique his interest (a taste of his own medicine!!!). No one runs around in fear of the exploded trash ball. He allows himself to drop all he's carrying at his feet, a small pile that he will soon be asked to pick the hey back up--
        Jacqueline reaches out and hugs him. His forearms raise up, as though in surprise for that half-second.
        He returns it soon after, in brief. It has all the mechanical features of a hug. The way arms lock around someone, at a level of pressure and strength that is appropriate for what is culturally a gesture of endearment.
        Ethius does return that hug with Jay alongside her, but even she might get the sense that there is just something... missing, in the way he does it. A hug in every way, but it feels like it just lacks the warmth and energy that should come with it.
        Like a hug solely made out of duty, rather than passion.
        "Yes. Happy new year." He responds, with that same tone of voice as always. No softer, no friendlier, no more emotional in general, allowing Jay to disengage and hug the rest near her.
        A hand goes to his forehead for a while, as though deep in thought about... something or another, as the moment passes and allows himself to move back once more into social obscurity.