Light up the Night - [BACKDATED to 2/5]

[mamaterasu]

Who: Ammy + Anyone interested
What: Fireworks show for the Lunar New Year!
When: Evening of 2/5/19
Where: Monkey Compound
Warnings: None so far, tag as needed!



[It's about noon when a message is posted to the Message Rock, as well as over the Stones of Farspeech - an elegant writing in kanji with a translation below. The voice is foreign, not often heard and possibly lost from most peoples' memories, but it sounds...excited? There's definitely a chime-like laughter hidden in the depths of it.]

All interested in a beautiful sight, please show up at dusk at the Hana--eh...the Monkey Compound. Drinks - for the elders among you - and some snacks will be provided, but I encourage you all to pack a box lunch.

Those unable to attend...I'll try to make sure you see it. Thank you.

[How very enigmatic indeed.

Still, those that do show up as the sky begins to change into a purple-blue color, dotted with small, glittering stars, will see that the Monkey Compound has been done up a bit. There's a line of small, flowering cherry blossom trees creating a lovely arch by the entrance, and little paper tags have been hung from a few of the branches, holding pictures of a tiny boar, or piglet, and a prayer written on the opposite side in kanji.

Inside has a very, very pleasant air to it. Much different than what this place used to be. It's laid with fresh, clean, springy grass and flowers, and a bountiful garden off to one side, which looks a little barren...probably because most of the foods have been harvested and laid out neatly on a bushels of palm fronds. Fresh vegetables and fruits from Ammy's garden, ripe for the taking and eating, if you're more the rustic type. There's also fire-roasted fish, skewered on a stick and cooking nicely by a crackling bonfire. Eat, enjoy, converse with neighbors and friends alike! Drinks have indeed been provided for the adults, a large barrel of sake with a ladle to pour it into one of twelve dishes. And yes, a bowl of water has been added to the side to rinse them off.

The centerpiece is a very basic shrine put up with a folding wall, once white in color but painted over with a beautiful portrait of a boar rolling a round firework, and a tiny, ceramic figure on a boar topping a little rock pile. Below the statue is an offering of sake, a single sakura mochi, a grilled fish, and some flowers. That is where the wolf will be when you first spot her.

For...a moment, at least. Because once the sky grows truly dark, and the embers from the bonfire has crept to soft, orange glow, a whistle will wheeze its way through the sky as a streak of light soars up, and up...before it explodes in a puff of white sparks. Nothing exciting, more a call to attention.

A minute passes, then another, and the're movement by the far end of the compound as the wolf readies everything she needs. A few final touches--...there! All ready for the show to begin.

And what a show it is.

The fireworks are beautiful and vibrant, coloring the skies in a vast array of rainbow hues, dancing like they're actually alive. True artistry, and a blessing from the God of Explosions, Bakugami (and the local rabbit god, who provided a number to help make this work). An explosive force meant to open the gate for a blissful new year - full of color, full of life, and bountiful in all things that bring happiness and joy to those with good in their hearts.

Happy Lunar New Year. ♥]

Comments

[hyperlit]

[The shock isn't quite so strange, anymore. Most seem to insist that they don't owe them for a service that would ordinarily cost something, usually gearbits, though sometimes it would be a different sort of cost. The blood and spray of cutting through monster after monster, or scaling rows of puzzle-traps designed to crush them to jelly, just to claw a health pack from the depths and stop the bleeding for a moment.]

[They glance down at their hands, gloved and still.]

[It's not as simple as that. Not with their mental balancing books.]

will repay debt
will not owe you

[ninjatortle]

Please don't give me anything because you feel you have to. But if you plan to give me something because you want to...

[It's... hard, sometimes, to accept a gift as a gift. There's that fear, that anxiety, that terror that someday there'll be a demand for repayment. If it gives Drifter peace of mind, then... they cast a look around, trying to think of something.]

Uh... hm. I could use a sake refill, but I really wanna sit and watch the fireworks! It'd be worth a lot to me if someone could take care of that for me!

[Does that sound too flimsy? They tried to pick something that could be done easily, but also done immediately. No debt, no lingering guilt, no sense of an unreturned favour. Get healed, settle it, enjoy the festivities with an unburdened mind. Besides, sake does sound pretty good right now.

They settle down near Drifter, kneeling comfortably on the ground, and hold their hands out patiently. No rush, no demand, just an offer that can be taken or refused.]

[hyperlit]

[It's not ideal. The Drifter again looks down at their hands, trying to mentally tabulate the offer versus what they might conceivably be able to do in exchange. It's not adding up very nicely. In any case, anyone who heals them ought to know before they try anything:]

not only external injury

[Right on cue, their shoulders quake in a quiet shiver. One hand crumples into a fister, pressing over their chest, as they start to cough.]

[It is several moments before they can answer.]

sick

[ninjatortle]

[...Oh.

It's an answer Drifter has probably heard enough times to grow accustomed to hearing it, but it can't be easy to hear it now:]

I'm sorry. I can't heal that.

[They lower their head.]

I can't cure disease in the way that paladins or clerics do. I can only mend wounds.

[hyperlit]

i know

[They...know. They know that no one could cure this ailment, because not even a god could cleanse this putridity from their veins. Not even breaking the Cell that tortured the world with the pestilence, poisoning the blood of the planet itself, could ease its deadly grip around their heart.]

[The Storyteller could not. The jackal could not. What hope would one monk have?]

do not exhaust strength
trying to mend what cannot be mended

[ninjatortle]

[Eska stares down at the hands they've been holding out this whole time.]

I understand.

But... let me do what little I can, if it's okay with you.

[hyperlit]

[They've no health packs left. The only option available is this - to trade someone's capacity for healing for something they can do for them, later. A simple sake refill will not be sufficient. They'll just...have to keep track of it for later.]

[They consign that to their memory.]

[One last thing.]

require skin contact
?

[ninjatortle]

Nope. I can tap into someone's ki through clothing or armor, as long as it's not... like... a foot-thick layer.

[A skill most monks figure out through doing Stunning Strikes - it'd be pretty hard to successfully disrupt the ki of an active combatant if access to bare flesh was a requirement. Empathic healing may have a very different effect, but the underlying principle remains the same: it's all about reaching into the lifepool of others to achieve a certain change in their system, right?]

[hyperlit]

owe you

[They will make that very clear, from the onset. They owe them for this. They are not about to forget it until the debt is repaid.]

[But they will hold out their hands, at long last, gloved and slender. Their stature has always been on the smaller side - lithe and slender, a shape built for agility and speed as opposed to brute strength - but their sickness has wasted even that meager amount of muscle into something frighteningly thin and entirely too weak.]

[Their grip should be stronger than it currently is. As it stands, their current injuries, still healing as they are, have cut the strength of their demeanor significantly.]