Fall Festival + 13th Hour Log!

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▼ Joint Fall Festival and 13th Hour Log!

 

Who: Anyone
Where: Virgo and all over the city!
When: The 22nd of September and any 13th Hour!
Summary: A combination Fall Festival log and 13th Hour log!
Warnings: Stay away if you are allergic to celebrations and fun. ...Or demons.

▼ As long as Heaven and Earth endure, I offer such to you...

 

The last of the effects of TRIHARDO have faded, and the city has slowly returned to its senses. Sheepish civilians emerge before dawn to restore graffitied property in shame; friends and family alike murmur awkward apologies as they realize the transgressions committed in the previous days. They work quickly. By daybreak of the 22nd, it seems as Hinoto-Ri has largely recovered from the effects of the Zodiac monster...

Just in time for the annual Fall Festival. Close on the heels of the previous event, the attempted feeling was much the same. Booths selling assorted merchandise including lucky bamboo rakes and all manner of gourd-based household items (have you ever wanted a bowl made from a squash?), activities ranging from bobbing for apples to what appeared to be a 'largest squash' competition, and of course, food. Lots and lots and lots of food, from fresh fruits and fresh berries to candied apples and yams to more traditional chrysanthemum candies and taro and rice cakes. Consciously or not, Hinoto-Ri has fused a variety of customs into a single event, allowing for familiar fun for those of any background.

Through it all, though, there hangs a sense of unease and a slightly subdued atmosphere. Painted trees and bushes are still visible, and the destruction of property caused by overzealous citizens has not been fully restored. Whether or not the people of the city blame the Visitors for the events of the previous weeks remains uncertain...

▼ Tis now the very witching time of night

 

Soon enough, the curfew comes and in the blink of an eye, it seems, the festival has disbanded. The memories of the Virgo attack are still too fresh, and citizens and merchants alike retreat to the safety of their homes. Whether or not the private conference from earlier that week had any conclusion, the Visitors, it seems, are still granted free rein of the night.

11:58. 11:59. ...Now. Once again, the night sky is dyed a crimson red as the 13th Hour falls upon the city. And from the ether, the demons come forth, called by the fanatic light of the moon. It is only three days from the full moon, and the monsters remain aggressive.

But the 13th Hour is hardly a unique phenomenon. It comes nightly and by now, both Visitors and citizens alike have doubtlessly learned to accept it. On any night of the week, venturing out during this time will surely result in trouble...

▼ OOC Blurb

 

[ This is a dual log encompassing both the Fall Festival on the 22nd of September and 13th Hour posts running throughout the entire week and even month. We're trying a different format this time with more potential prompts; go ahead and start as many threads as you'd like under the appropriate section! Please tag with your character's name and OPEN. If you respond to the 13th Hour section, please write the days your character is out and about.

You have free rein in this log - join other people's posts, explore the festival, post them fighting monsters and enjoy leveling up/interacting! For this log, you can level up persona ONCE PER IC WEEK, but not in the same thread IC-wise. Please do not abuse this. The conditions are that the fighting must happen on different days. The threads should be long enough that an attack is possible and shouldn't just be a few comments for the sake of leveling up (i.e.: we want effort in them, as much as you would make with a normal log.)

FOR THE CREATURES: The creatures have to be in the Bestiary for you to use them. You don't need to use creatures from your own home worlds either, as long as someone's put in a creature in there! (Also, make sure your characters could logically take on the creatures you pick let's not have them take down a giant creature when they couldn't normally.) ]

DON'T FORGET TO TAG YOUR RESPONSES WITH NAME AND/OR DATE

▼ Quick Links

 

OPEN CHARACTER POSTS
Coming Soon!

Comments

[a_gentle_boy]

Oh...! That's right. The Needles were used to bind the Dragon and prevent it from awakening.

[An elongated pause as Lucas slowly comes to the small conclusion...]

But then -- But... Then it would be at least as large as the entirety of the Nowhere Islands.

[He gives a slight gasp of dismay.]

No wonder everything started to fall...

[psimera]

[The Commander swivels slightly, looking confused. Then startled, as he figures out Lucas actually meant everything. Though now he's under the misconception that the place started to sink under the waves.]

...the Islands started to fall? I thought... the Dragon would just come out... [He trails off - that sounded better in his head; what he meant was come out without doing anything to the Islands, not - push them down, or whatever it did.]

...I thought that's what would have happened if I pulled the last Needle for Master Porky. Not you. [There. That makes more sense. He's - pretty sure Lucas didn't want to destroy his home, so shouldn't the Dragon have...]

[a_gentle_boy]

[Lucas's smile is pained now.]

So you see... That's why I need to go home. I'm not sure what will happen next, but... I think maybe the Islands always had to be destroyed. Destroyed and then recreated.

[It was something he had never been able to really accept, but... that was how the Magypsies had explained it.]

The Dragon wasn't supposed to wake until the end of it all, right...?

[He sighs now, turning his attention back to the floats.]

Anyway, thinking about it doesn't help. Let's... Let's try and be happy. Just for a little while.

[psimera]

...

[He still wants to know more of what happened. In fact, maybe this is a good thing, what Lucas is describing, maybe it means Master Porky got what he wanted even if the final Needle was lost. But at the same time...]

...

[He starts to reach out to put his hand on Lucas's shoulder, then changes his mind and yanks it back, folding both hands on his lap and following Lucas's gaze back to the floats as well.]

Alright.

[a_gentle_boy]

[Lucas lapses back into silence now, intending to do so for the remainder of the lantern parade. Unless the Masked Man addresses him for some reason or another, he'll simply watch the floats pass, one after another.

The lights are soothing. Though it's not too comfortable lying flat against the ground, his eyes are half-lidded by the time the third or fourth float comes by. He sighs, an expression somewhere between contentment and melancholy.]

Tazmily never could have had something like this. ...There's not enough people, for one thing.

[psimera]

[The Commander is silent as long as Lucas is, though, sitting up, he's a bit more alert. Instead of watching a point in the parade and waiting for floats to pass by it, or following particular ones, he seems to mostly be scanning down the line of floats slowly over and over. He darts glances over the crowd every once in a while.]

...no. With the Pigmasks, maybe... [Though even then the streets definitely wouldn't have been as full.]

[a_gentle_boy]

...I don't know if I'd like a parade filled with nothing but pigs very much, though.

[Lucas turns to Claus and smiles. This is evidently a joke.]

Why... pigs, though? I know his name is Porky, but it still seems very... strange.

[psimera]

[The joke flies right over his head, sadly, he takes this absolutely seriously. Lucas doesn't have a reason to like Pigmasks, to be fair.]

... [That, he actually has absolutely no idea about. He tries to convey this with a shrug.] I think... Master Porky just likes them? He's very proud of the NK Cyborg.

[a_gentle_boy]

...

['Proud' isn't an emotion he'd ever think to associate with that... thing.]

It's. ...I guess it's... very adaptable?

What was it, exactly?

[psimera]

[The Commander allows an even larger shrug to demonstrate that he just doesn't know, does anyone know?]

...I don't think... it's exactly a chimera. It doesn't... feel like a chimera.

Something close, maybe.

[a_gentle_boy]

[Well it doesn't matter Lucas blew it up. ...Come to think of it, he'd probably blown up most of the things in Porky's army by this point.]

...Um.

Did you get along with the others in Porky's army at all? Not the N.K. Cyborg, exactly, but...

[psimera]

[For shame, Lucas. Only maybe not really.]

...some of the Pigmasks were nice to me. And the working chimeras - [He tries to figure out a way to describe the relationship between chimeras, but he can't find the words. It's an important feeling, though - a feeling that, if he thinks about it, he's pretty sure the scientists caused on purpose, but that doesn't matter to him. Instead of saying anything, he tries to gesticulate in such a way that'll express it, which may or may not end up making any sense.]

[The non-working chimeras are different. Those he just pitied too much, and it outstripped the rest of the feeling.]

[...he does not mention Fassad.]

[a_gentle_boy]

[Lucas will feel vaguely guilty now. ...Only vaguely. It wasn't as if he had ever killed anything if he could help it, but sometimes, well.

...Not talking about Fassad is probably for the best.]

I see...

It was hard to see the army as anything apart from the enemy at first, but... after some of the people from Tazmily started working with the Pigmasks, I realized they were all people under the costumes, too. I wish we hadn't had to fight so much.

[psimera]

... [The Commander isn't really sure how to respond to that. Wishing doesn't - well, no, in relation to the Dragon it might've mattered, but Lucas still did fight the Pigmask army. It's true that the Pigmasks generally survived that, where some of the chimeras... stopped moving. But it's not like he doesn't value chimeras. Nor does he understand the idea of chimeras maybe being better off released from their reconstructions, at least the working ones, since he's perfectly fine as one.]

[Instead, he offers -] ...they didn't get to take off their masks often even when we weren't fighting you. [Being a Pigmask meant you didn't have much leave time. Or much pay. But a lot of them had taken pride in the job anyway, especially the ones who'd voluntarily enlisted.]

[...not all aspects of the job, though. A few Pigmasks had seemed - uncomfortable, when they'd first been assigned to work directly under him and realized their commander was a child. He hadn't understood - he was still a chimera, it shouldn't have made a difference. But it had, for them.]

[a_gentle_boy]

[A slight pause. Thank you for those words of comfort, Claus.]

...They must have started to smell after a while.

[Mother 3: Strange, Funny, Heart -- sometimes just strange, honestly.]

I guess it's important in an army to not stand out. And the masks were definitely a little scary at first. Back when I saw them for the first time, it really did look like a monster instead of a person...

[psimera]

[He really was trying to help! Really. Lucas can have an excuse of not realizing they were people because nobody ever would since they never took the costumes off? Or something.]

...they have to wash them.

[Lucas 'confessing' about the masks being scary makes him slowly volunteer something too.] The first time I saw a Pigmask was when I was still being reconstructed. It was... startling... [And that's the closest you're going to get to him admitting to being frightened.]

...the masks aren't that bad when you get used to them, though. [And he's used enough that the sight of one is comforting by now.]

[a_gentle_boy]

[Honestly, Lucas saying something was scary wasn't a confession so much as it was something to be taken for granted. Once upon a time, he had been afraid of being more than 10 feet away from Hinawa. Still, he'll take his brother's admittance with a soft smile - slightly pained.]

You remember that, still...?

[And as much as he would like to press for details, they were still on shaky ground. He'll leave it for another time.]

Um. ...It looks like the parade is almost over now. There's only one last float coming down the street...