destinystrings | Tanabata - [Open City Post]

Tanabata - [Open City Post]

▼ Evening of the 7th

Who: Anyone
Where: The entire city
When: July 7th
Summary: The Star Festival
Warnings: That depends who is there. Remember to mark your titles clearly if any warnings need to be issued!

▼ A tale of two lovers...

The bamboo leaves rustle,
shaking away in the eaves.
The stars twinkle
on the gold and silver grains of sand.
The five-colour paper strips
I have already written.
The stars twinkle,
they watch us from heaven.

▼ A festival for a growing city

It is perhaps the most classical love story that most of the Hinoto-Ri natives knew about; the story of Orihime, the weaving goddess, and Hikoboshi. Instantly falling in love, the two gods would often forget about their duties to the point of negligence in order to be together, so much so that the other gods forcibly separated them. Crying for each other's comfort, they were allowed to visit each other on the 7th day of the 7th month...as long as it didn't rain.

Today, the sun is high in the air, a small wind making the overall experience not too unpleasant. Clearly it's a time for celebration so the lovers may meet again.

In the Capricorn ward, at the edge of the Central Park of Hinoto-Ri, numerous booths have seemingly sprung up overnight. Colorful banners decorate every single tree, and you can spot the faeries fluttering about, the very same ones who caused the Visitors so much trouble up to just a few days prior, helping out by adding their own personal touches to the festival, be that a good thing or a bad thing. Most of the leaves are filled with perfect droplets of dew, reflecting the sun and giving everything a jewel-like appearance.

Even with the harsh life, Hinoto-Ri knew how to make each celebration special. The booths themselves had everything one could hope in such a festival, from mountains of star candy to spinning top toys to booths selling small bambo and basil plants decorated for the occasion. Booth food, as always, was delicious and fresh, and you could attempt to catch goldfish or even turtles if you had money to spare.

Walk around in the more traditional outfits or in your normal clothing, no one is going to complain in this mixture of demonic heritage and human initiative.

Giant streamers were attached to the largest tree trunks and many large bamboo trees had been brought in, covered in paper cranes and wishing paper, blank sheets nearby so you could add your own. In fact, it is encouraged! What wish did you want to write down today?

At night, entire rows of the city are covered in bright lights and laterns, the festival lasting until early morning, despite the 13th hour. Just be careful where you're going, they set up parameters for this, but it just wouldn't be a star festival without viewing them up in the sky, right?

The giant telescope at the astrology center is made public for all those who wish to see the heavenly lights. Just don't linger too long, as others want to get a glimpse too! It's important to share...

...Especially when the fireworks go off later at night! Not only are they absolutely stunning to watch, but there's an evident bit of magic involved in them, as they take on figures and animals, telling the mythological tale of the two lovers, now found.

During the day and through the night, you can hear sounds of the Taiko drums in the various public squares. There are a few groups, each with their own set giving you a listening experience unlike any other.

[Feel free to start your own threads! The festival is open to everyone, day and night and you can do anything ~~at zombocom~~ at the festival. If you want to get a better understanding of what your characters might see and do, these videos will help.]

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...oh.

Thanks. Really. There went his entire...thing. It...hm. And that was actually a good question.

"I'm really not sure," he admitted, sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as he tried to figure out the best way to phrase 'it seemed like a good idea at the time.' He decided that there wasn't a good way. "Everybody else was doing it."

"Everyone else also makes wishes like 'I want to be a rock star', so." Phantom Girl gives a small shrug. "Not really into the whole crowd-sourcing thing here. I mean, it can't hurt, of course; it just seems a little... silly."

'Crowd-sourcing.'

Huh. He'll have to figure that out later.

"What's silly about it?" Genuine incomprehension. "Everybody needs a dream. I mean, yeah, some are...er, nobler than others." Which led into territory he was uncertain he wanted to venture into, so in lieu of that he skirted about the edges. "I mean, I wished for a legendary sword. But that's what makes it fun."

"Hey, wishes can be serious business." She adopts a serious expression as she lands lightly on the ground. "I mean. For all I know, in this world, the star gods actually answer the silly little things you scribble down on a piece of paper. What if you wish for a legendary sword and you get one of those evil ones that drain your soul or something?"

"That could be cool. I mean, sure, I'd have a horrible curse in the meantime, but that would only mean that I would eventually one day power up to become some kind of dark knight. You know. My parents are dead, slain by evil. I've got a cursed sword, then I'd just need to get some kind of costume and go fight evil as Owain Dark, Avenging Avenger of Darkness."

This was totally legitimate as trains of thought went.

"You don't have the right idea at all." Phantom Girl sighs and shakes her head in disbelief. "It would be the kind of curse that dooms you into becoming a living tool of the dark gods - you know, committing mass slaughter against your will and all that kind of thing. Some hero will have to come and kill you eventually, and your last words will be something like that 'finally my agony has ended'."

She takes out a pen and begins to write on her tanzaku.

"I've got a wish."

He was going to respond but he was startled. First, that she was able to counter him so effectively and so well, in a way he approved of. If he knew her better (and if Ylisse had the gesture in the first place) this was the point in which they'd highfive or fistbump. As it was, he just was kind of...impressed. Emasculated. But impressed.

She didn't look the type.

Second, something about 'living tool of the dark gods' sounded weirdly familiar. Hard to explain. As if someone or something he knew dealt with that.

"Yeah? So what's your wish?"

"Well. Since you're going to be cursed to wander the earth until the end of days, I figured I might as well wish to be an even better superhero than I already am. I mean, it will be hard to improve perfection, but... someone has to stop you."

She gives a small shrug and hangs up the tanzaku on the nearest bamboo stem. A finger is thrust in his direction.

"No peeking."

"You're a superhero," he said in tones which - though he didn't have the cultural background to appropriately perk up - was still quite interested. (Owain made a note to peek later.) These were tones which indicated that should Tinya have the interest to rhapsodize she would have an audience. If she chose to ramble at length about her adventures she'd have someone interested. These were tones which implied that, should she not be lying about her profession, she was probably fairly cool, yes.

These tones, basically, indicated many things. There were a lot of implications stacked in those three-to-five (depending on how you looked at it) words.

"What, the costume didn't give it away?" Phantom Girl's tones, in contrast, are some clearly evident combination of vague amusement and smugness. It was always rather self-affirming to hear the awe when she had these kinds of conversations; totally 90% of why she wanted to do this job in the first place.

"Phantom Girl of the Legion of Superheroes. The one and only."

"Well...er, not really." But there was no good way of saying 'I thought you were a generic mage' so he bypassed that and drew the absolutely wrong conclusion in the process, but that's the way things rolled when you were Owain. "So...your le- Legion?"

It seemed only right to give the name the sort of emphasis she had, transforming it from a generic collection, a legion of superheroes, to the Legion of Superheroes.

"Right. Legion."

Capital letters are totally important and also definitely distinguishable in speech. Phantom Girl approves.

"We work with the United Planets to patrol the whole universe, more or less - or at least, the civilized parts of it."

And he gave her a look.

This look quietly said that there was a thing that flew over his head, or, perhaps, it would be better to say that she had said something that was just as believable as one of his fantasies.

Intellectually, he recognized that given the circumstances he had no particular reason to disbelieve it. After all, his alternate universe cousin happened to be related to a second alternate universe cousin who happened to be female and unrelated to him in his world. The roomba- well. He had encounters with things beyond his comprehension.

However, he had no comprehension of a universe or planets, and only dimly recognized what a planet (singular) was thanks to one of Laurent's rambles that made him briefly imagine an invasion of beings from another world before deciding to go with something more sensible and realistic, like dragons.

"R-really."

"...Um. Yes?"

Phantom Girl also gives Owain a look. This look has the property of fluidity, such that with the increasing elapsing of time, it subtly and slowly evolves from mild confusion over why her conversation partner seemed vaguely uneasy with her previous statement to dawning comprehension upon recognition that his clothes were not appropriate for the time period this city was purported to exist in (something akin to 20th century Earth) to mild exasperation induced by premonitions of migraines in the near future to resigned dissatisfaction.

"Oh. ...Wait, how do you know about medieval fantasy cliches if you actually are from medieval times?"

He wasn't entirely certain how to handle the insinuation that he wallowed in medieval fantasy cliches. "I..."

Or the fact that his entire existence was, perhaps, founded on cliche. "Er..."

But he rallied bravely. "Well I-"

Fortunately at this point there was a small child nearby which started screaming, derailing thought until his mom shushed him. What were they saying?

Phantom Girl dutifully awaits the child to stop screaming to resume the conversation, her hands on her hips now.

"You know you haven't formed a complete sentence in like, the last five minutes, right?"

...She proceeds to an exaggerated shrug.

"I guess I have that effect on people sometimes. Gawk all you'd like; I'm not going anywhere. I don't have a pen, but if you want to swing by later, I can give autographs, too."

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Tanabata - [Open City Post]

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