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

[journalname]

Thank you.

[.....]

Ah, but I should not be going on. And at a party, of all things! I'm terribly sorry. [He doesn't seem to have entirely bounced back just yet, but you know. Best to make an effort.]

[ideismo]

You don't have to apologize to me; I don't mind hearing people out.

[It's easy; not quite gentle, but that's more because he's not a gentle person.]

Besides, I admit I'm not the best at parties; I've attended a few, but they were largely for formality's sake after I got my title. I didn't know what to do with myself then, and...well.

[He gestures vaguely, just kind of encompassing the...this. The all of this.]

[journalname]

Oh, the sort of party with visiting nobles, and that kind of thing? [Asgore snorts faintly.] I do remember those. They were never what I would call fun.

[He folds his paws, turning to overlook the current party. Their position at the entry trees makes it easy, but then again it's not very large to begin with. People seem to be enjoying themselves.

He's usually not so bad at parties himself. But usually he's among his people, and...well, recently he's started to realize that maybe he's been out of sorts for a while, here. What happened to the Asgore who would have made friends here within the first week or two? The one who arrived at Beacon?]

But that is alright. Not everyone enjoys large gatherings, and it is good for people who do to keep that in mind.

[ideismo]

As long as it isn't the sort with dancing involved, I'm usually fine, if at a slight loss. The rest is...usually manageable.

[because he's commandant and can't get away with just holding up the walls if dancing is involved

and dancing is an archaic form of torture, asgore, there is nothing will convince him otherwise.]

[journalname]

Don't most royal parties involve dancing?

[Theirs always did, at least back in the day when they had formal royal balls. He hasn't really done that since he took the throne, and especially not after the war. They're all far beyond such things.]

[ideismo]

Yes. Yes, they do.

[It was terrible.]

I had to have one of my subordinates teach me. Very quickly, as I had never learned.

[journalname]

[Asgore chuckles.]

I had lessons in such things since I was very young. But I suppose it does sound much worse, to have to learn it all at once later in life.

[ideismo]

[That's...valid, honestly.]

Oh...I was a commoner, actually, before I was accepted into the Knights. So I really had no reason to know such things.

[journalname]

I was the crown prince in a time when we still had contact with other kingdoms. It was important then. Still, I -

[He hesitates, and the decision to go on with what he was saying is visible.]

- I did not raise my own son the same way. Better to let him just be a child.

[ideismo]

...I can understand that, though I don't have any children of my own. I've seen how difficult it can be on them, however, to be raised like that; Princess Estellise was raised in the castle, I've known her since she was...three or four years old, I believe?

[He really doesn't think about the fact that he's known Estellise for at long as she can remember, most likely - the idea that he's been a constant like that is something that's never really occurred to him.

He kind of wonders if she ever thought about that, after everything became more complicated.

Probably not.

Good.]

I can't fault you for the decision, at any rate.

[journalname]

...I am glad I did it.

[It would have been such a waste, if Asriel did not even get to fully enjoy the few years he had. Asgore would have never forgiven himself.

Let's not talk about this anymore.]

That's a shame. It's especially difficult to be a royal child in...tense political times.

[The war didn't start until he was already king, and it was a surprise when they really did attack, but things were tense with the humans for a while before that. Asgore can't even remember when he first learned that, he was so young.

At least the war in Alexei's world is over.]

[ideismo]

The Emperor was still alive at the time, so it was a bit more tolerable for her, I think. She's eighteen now, and she's been all over the world - if anything, we'd quite like it if she adventured a little less...

[I mean. He certainly would have appreciated that before things sort of went to hell; after the fact...honestly, he can't even be mad at her.]

[journalname]

Hahaha. To be honest, I can sympathize. I think I would have very much enjoyed that at her age.

[although he sure is well-traveled now]

[ideismo]

It took three different brigades to retrieve her the first time, and as soon as they turned around for five minutes, off she went again.

[He honestly isn't even properly exasperated at this anymore? This is just what his life looks like.]

She was with two people who used to be knights, however, and one of them was still in frequent contact with me. So I was still able to keep an eye on her, at least, while she went off to have her fun with her friends.

[journalname]

[Asgore smiles. Ohhh, he should be more sympathetic, but that just sounds like so much fun.]

It was good of you to let her do that. The young should have their fun - she'll have more than enough responsibility someday.

[ideismo]

I was concerned for her at first, of course, but she's skilled with healing and knows how to use a sword. She's become rather competent over her time away; I got to see it for myself recently. She's learned a good amount of things that remaining in the castle wouldn't have taught her.

[The things he's telling Asgore aren't lies; none of it is untruthful. It just isn't complete, either - the full truth of the matter can remain on Terca Lumireis, where it belongs.

Besides, he could come to like recalling it like this.]

[journalname]

[Asgore will probably never question Alexei's version of events at all!]

I'm sure it was an excellent experience. It will probably make her a better ruler someday, to have gone out in the world herself. Staying only within the castle walls does not do anyone any good.

[ideismo]

[Fortunate for all of us, really. Partially because he won't exactly want to answer for himself unless he absolutely has to, and partially because that would require me to actually try to explain the most nonsensical parts of Vesperia's plot.]

Swordmaster Drake never did agree with that notion for some reason - he was her teacher with regards to blades - but he was always an odd fellow. Entirely too bound up in tradition like the rest of the Empire, if I had to guess - simply because we've done something a specific way for a thousand years doesn't mean it should be how we keep doing it.

[journalname]

Oh, I agree. Times do change - even if we had not moved underground, life is so different now than when I took the throne. I admit I do not always understand it very well, particularly the technology...

[Not that it's his job to entirely get how the Core works or anything. There's engineers for that. But everybody does seem to agree that he should have a better handle on the Internet.]

But it's better to try and keep up.

[ideismo]

I'm often one of those trying to push our Council to actually consider that... It's an uphill battle sometimes.

[...You know what, we're not going to talk about the Council.]

I have noticed that some of the technology in other worlds is a long ways beyond my own, however; I'm interested in it, in some ways, though it's a bit much in others.

[journalname]

I find the advances in communication interesting. We have things we can use to speak and write to each other across distances - like the stones here, but machines. I had one, but it's been gone for a long time now. I am not quite sure where I left it...

[This is why he never gets anybody's texts.]

[ideismo]

Really...

[He's still a little weirded out by the stones, honestly, he has a tendency to yell into them because it just feels weird to use them?]

We still rely on messengers; issuing orders or receiving current information on things that are happening can take days. Devices like that would be infinitely more useful, to say nothing of valuable.

[journalname]

They are very useful! Still not perfect, of course - they must be kept full of energy, and they require access to a...signal.

[please don't ask him to explain this]

I know how to use mine well enough, but that is about all. I hear that the newer ones can show you the person you are talking to, as if you were right there with them! [Okay, he does understand it a little better than that by virtue of knowing what TVs are, but referencing television will not help here.]

[ideismo]

That's... Well, it's highly impressive, to say the least.

[He doesn't know what to do with this knowledge, per se, but that's so goddamn cool?]

I understand networks of signals being synchronized to one another, such that the individual parts function well enough individually but can also be connected as a group... We haven't quite managed communication across connections like that, however.

[journalname]

My Royal Scientist, Alphys, has done a lot of work on the communications system. I think she has rather given up on explaining it all to me, but I trust her.

[a recurring mistake, apparently]