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]

sick

[Dead, they don't say, because that tends to generate...distress, or apologies, or a million other things they simply don't have time for. Their weakness is obvious. They know it is obvious, because it has always been obvious, but when one warrior observes it aloud to another, it feels like more of a failure than it should.]

[Even if it could not be controlled, even if they cannot possibly conceal it, even if they've never made any attempt to, it still feels it.]

no cure

[lesbeau]

You can be sick here?

[It's not as much a judgement as it is an actual question. Beau had kind of written off death for a while on arrival- she goes as hard as she does when death is permanent consequence- but she also assumed that if they had the means to be brought back to life, their bodies could be more resilient, less ailed.]

Huh. Can the god fix it? I mean, they've done fuck all for me so far, but.

[hyperlit]

no
no god could

[They reach up, adjust the cowl of fabric swathed across the lower half of their face in an unconscious gesture, the closest they get to self-consciousness.]

not home
not here

[Here, they're still dying. Just in slow motion. It's still more time than they ever expected to have.]

[lesbeau]

Huh.

[She's quiet for a few seconds, taking that all in, her head bobbing in a small nod before she looks back to them.]

You know that's like, incredibly badass right? You got all that going on and you still whupped the shit out of me.

[Not that she's the strongest thing out there, but they were beyond capable. She never would've guessed they were working with a handicap.]

Like, seriously, I don't wanna fight you without limits like, ever.

[hyperlit]

[That's far from the sort of response they expect, and it shows - in their small, startled blink, in the way they have to process her reply for a few moments longer than they would typically.]

was an unfair fight
they were shooting at you

[That, after all, is a fundamental fact of the battlefield they were both in.]

[lesbeau]

[Now it's her turn to be unaccustomed to the treatment, raising an eyebrow and blinking twice.]

I mean, yeah. They're always shooting at me. But I was throwing them at you. That's just how fights are. So you fought me and them and came out on top.

[Beau looks away, taking another gulp of sake with a small hiss of her teeth.]

Most people can't take me solo on a good day. So. Yeah, that's incredible.

[hyperlit]

fight many things
ancient enemies
plagues
do not fight allies

[Ally is a safe term for it - neutrality, but not a complete decoupling from the reality of what...they are. What they mean. They don't struggle to find terms for it, words to name things, because they do not specialize in words and words so often fail.]

[At times, this failure in communication generates a breakdown in words, a tangle of thought they cannot translate into something decipherable.]

[lesbeau]

[It's a little lost in translation, Beau squinting at them as they plunk out the words.]

I mean, those guys weren't my allies.

[The monks are allies only so far as to say she can use their resources, at a price. They give her strength, now that she can run from them. Even allies doesn't seem right, though, especially as Drifter seems to be using it.]

But I mean, my friends hit me for my own good all the time. So I guess you were just fitting in where you were supposed to be.

[hyperlit]

you are

[It is simultaneously one of the easiest and hardest things to say to anyone.]

[It is simple. It is a role one can be to someone else. It does not need elaboration. Ally speaks for itself. It requires no further explanation than what it represents. Someone who will fight for and with you, beside you, alongside you. Someone who has your back.]

[(Someone who has your back in a blitz of cyan, speared through it.)]

[It also suggests a tie, an attachment, that they never intended to make in the first place.]

[The Shadow was right about one thing; some part of them never stopped trying to run from that.]

[lesbeau]

[Huh. It's... a little unexpected to hear it back, even if she just said it in so many of her own words. She's had a lot of those kinds of roles, the not-friend, the contact, the acquaintance. Just a scenario where she had a name or a description or a job, and they came and they used what she offered and left.

She's been here a few months now. Longer than she thought. But most people haven't tolerated her presence as long as they have, not in a way she believes is more willing than not.

Beau may be impulsive, but she knows how to read a room, knows when something's important. So she does something even weirder for her, and manages an actual smile.]

Then allies, yeah. Whatever name you wanna give it. People who... I'unno, know when to kick the shit out of each other.

[She likes it. That's more than nearly anyone's ever gotten.]

[hyperlit]

an important skill

[The Drifter agrees sagely, and they follow that up with a gesture - a curling finger and thumb in the shape of a "u", held up in front of the cowl covering the lower half of their face. It is a gesture meant to indicate a smile, cupped upwards.]

[It is the sole suggestion that what they have just said has the slant of a joke - but also not, considering what prior events entailed.]

[lesbeau]

[It takes her a second to catch it, that it's a smile. She's not totally on it when people grin at her on a good day, so this is especially weird, causing a blink as she processes it.

Meanwhile, there's only so long she can hold an actual smile, so it's morphed into a line of confusion and being a deer in the headlights as the gears turn in her head.]

Uh-- right, I mean. Stopping people doing dumb shit for the greater good, right?

[... wait, wait, wAIT--]

Oh, I mean, yeah! It's, it's what friends do. Or something.

[hyperlit]

allies

[Friends is still a strange and difficult word for them to come to terms with. Ironically, it's more of a hurdle than the word family. Perhaps because the latter term did not come with a pre-established context. They've no metric for the latter, and plenty for the former.]

["Friend" is a little too close to the nature of an attachment that they have not learned to stop running from, just yet.]

[lesbeau]

[Beau just shrugs.]

Yeah, sure. Allies. I'll ride with you any day.

[She downs the rest of the sake, and then stands up and extends her hand.]

C'mon. We'll find Yasha, get your bruises fixed up.

[hyperlit]

[A slow blink as they process that: the hand, the acknowledgment, the mention of Yasha. They weren't aware that the two knew each other, though perhaps they should have known by now.]

[They contemplate her hand for a moment.]

[Then they take it.]

$?

[lesbeau]

[Oh, they know each other. Very well, wink wonk. Or well, that's the kind of way Beau would hope-- mostly they're from the same world and are technically part of the same adventuring group. But that's enough.

It takes her a little bit to figure out what that symbol means, but she takes a guess.]

What uh-- gold or whatever? Payment? No, I hit you in the fucking face.

[This is her fault, obviously. All of it, and she can't even really fix it. Add that one to a long list of fuckups she can't do anything about and probably created. Oh well.]

C'mon. Ally special.

[She'll keep holding their hand to make sure they don't run off. Just in case.]

[hyperlit]

[Yes, but they're past that now. They can't feasibly cease all professional and interpersonal relations with anyone who happens to hurt them, on accident or otherwise. From a working standpoint, it's simply not practical.]

[They have learned that if they press the point, it will only worsen matters. So instead, they simply file that debt away as something to be repaid at a later time, privately, and lever themself to their feet with a slow, painful stagger and an arm wrapped around their middle.]

[And they straighten, and stand.]

ok

[lesbeau]

[Oh Drifter, you are too good for this.

She surveys them over, having been content to just drag them along, but then thinks about it. Beau doesn't have a lot of raw strength, but... they seem light, so.]

You wanna ride on my back?

[She's not intending to patronize them, just. Help, somehow.]

You don't have to. But it's kinda fun. If you uh. Never have.

[hyperlit]

[They stare at her, somehow managing to communicate disdain through nothing more than the subtle tilt of their chin, the narrowing of their eyes.]

no

[They are not a child. To be helped along at all is regarded as a reason for shame; to be carried at all would be an insult.]

[lesbeau]

[She just shrugs.]

Alright, alright. Your call.

[But she's still gonna drag them along to Yasha to make sure they don't run off on her and refuse to get healed up. That's happening no matter what.]

[hyperlit]

[The Drifter does not quite glare at her, but they shoot her a very deliberate look. They cannot escape this, ultimately, but they will still endure it with as much dignity as is possible for someone like them.]

[In the end, that isn't much.]