[EVENT] FESTIVAL OF SHADOW NIGHTS

[khuimods]

Characters: Anyone and everyone!
Date: Throughout October
Location: All over the archipelago
Situation: It's Goth Christmas, Khu Ioduan style baby
Warnings/Rating: Spoops and scares

"The Festival of Shadow Nights is technically only a week long event from October 20th (Kicked off with the Masquerade) until October 27th (ending with the Night Parade). However there is a certain enthusiasm for the holiday that is infectious and many people celebrate it throughout the entirety of the month."



STREET FAIRS

Street Fairs will be incredibly common throughout Aifaran. Business owners take advantage of this holiday season to sell their wares. The Erol'a stalls are particularly lavish as it's mating season for a number of crustaceans, and they have on display a huge variety of beautiful shells and delicious seafood. Gourds of all sorts are also in season (and always in particular abundance) so enjoy a large amount of foods and beverages containing squashes and melons. Games, beer and wine tastings, and artisan candies are also major additions to these street fairs.

GOURD FOLK

One can expect the rather bizarre occurrence of the Gourd Folk. Once believed scions of the Night Parade, these vines that have taken on the size and shape of a small, human child are, in fact, not quite so mysterious. The man behind the curtain was revealed, and it's Daemid mischief at its finest (for a given definition of "finest"). These pesky piskies are moving house and using a bit of their magic to do so. So, if you don't want a room full of acorn squash (and the subsequent invasion of Daemids), punt these pumpkins back into the patch from whence they came.

SPIRIT LANTERNS

A tradition of the Festival of Shadow Nights is the making and lighting of spirit lanterns. These are elaborately decorated lanterns can come in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials, from paper, to glass to seashells. Their candles have particularly unique properties - the flames burn a multitude of colours depending on the wax used. While the spirit lanterns are largely used for decoration, they have another purpose as well - to invite a brief visit from those marching in the Night Parade. Red lanterns repel the dead, and there is a certain taboo around hanging them outside private residences. The logic goes that since any dead that come in cannot actually harm you, you must have a guilty conscience and not want to be reminded of what you might have done to the unwanted spirit.

THE NIGHT PARADE [OCTOBER 27th]

The Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts is the culmination of the week of Shadow Nights. It is a parade no one attends. The streets are emptied before midnight as people go to their homes or take shelter in local pubs and cafes, for tonight the dead walk the earth. They parade through the streets, silent save for the the soft chime of bells that a few may carry. Spirit lanterns are lit and hung in windows or outside doors to welcome the dead inside for a brief visit, though bright red lanterns ward off the dead. These apparitions cannot be touched nor can they speak, at least not in any sound a person can hear, but leave out paper and ink and the stronger spirits can form brief messages or leave small tokens long lost or forgotten. These visits last at most a few hours before these ghosts must return to where they came from.

Comments

Night Parade | Open...if you dare

[redlightgreenlight]

The dead held no power over her, never had, never would. Within the safety of the barrier, the magic of the Death Plane was weaker, Valdis had nothing to fear from it. The idea of ghosts walking the streets still unnerved her, but there were also opportunities here. So as the streets began to empty, the sensation of souls grew heavier, a sign that the ghosts were coming. Valdis lifted her nose to the sky and released a long, eerie howl, letting the sound echo in the darkness as she called to the dead. Green faded to red as she called out again, starting to move through the city, issuing another welcome to the dead. If she was going to spread rumors of a Death God in pursuit of whatever happened on the Narrakra, there was no better night to start.

The Ghosts were mostly silent, passing through her without any notice, though the sound of a bell lit the air every so often. The spirits weren't as chilling as she expected, though the existence of the red lanterns meant that some might be worthy of caution to those inside. She made sure to linger outside those doors longer than any others, singing her own song to the night air. Few enough Dreamfolk knew what she was for her to enact her plans, hopefully they wouldn't spoil it.

[soloflight]

Jacen quietly stepped out into the street that night, a spirit lantern in one hand, papers and a bottle of ink in the other. He’d heard about the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts from the locals, and had been appropriately cautioned against wandering out into the open, but the idea of communing with the dead didn’t really frighten him. So here he was, a willing participant in the parade, holding up the lantern to beckon a ghost or two.

Anakin, he thought, letting himself fall into the Force’s embrace. His brother was in Aifaran, yes, but it wasn’t the brother he’d lost, the Anakin who’d made his last stand on Myrkr. And so Jacen let his senses reach out to the parading dead, through the hollow in his chest with which he used to be able to sense the Vong, searching for a familiar soul.

What he found was something else entirely.

It started as a whisper, and then it was a howl, long and eerie, enough to make hairs stand. But it wasn’t the howls that brought Jacen up short; it was the underlying message, one he could pick up enough of given his unusual affinity with animals. About some... tragedy on a ship? Darkness and death and a... god?

The air suddenly felt so much colder.

[redlightgreenlight]

The spirits of the dead were not the only ones on the streets tonight, Valdis stopped short at the sensation of the unfamiliar living soul that entered her awareness. Sorrow, desire, confusion, the concerns of one seeking the dead to answer a question. Those feelings were all around, so it was the sudden shift from passive emotions to the sharper sense of wariness that caught her attention. Her lips curled back as she drew the scent over her tongue, picking out each part that made this newcomer who he was.

Valdis lifted her snout and howled again, the deep sound moving across the planes in an eerie and chilling manner. It started on the life plane, but soon fell into silence as it rose on the plane of souls, sending a sharp chill through any who might hear, a sense of dread. Satisfied that her call had set the stage, she dropped her head and rounded the corner, her massive form moving through the ghosts without a care, her red eyes fixed on the only other living being currently on the streets.

[soloflight]

Jacen sensed the massive wolf before he even saw it, although when he did and realized that it had singled him out, he felt no fear. Sure, there was a lingering feeling of dread in his system, one he'd picked up from all around him, but as spooky as the wolf's red eyes were, he was hardly fazed.

Still, he was careful in his movements, slowly and deliberately setting down the lantern and his other paraphernalia on the ground. Then he turned to the creature, keeping his swirling emotions at bay as he tried to reach out through the Force in greeting.

Hey there, he thinks, offering a small smile.

[redlightgreenlight]

The lack of fear left Valdis feeling slightly disappointed, but Dreamfolk had always been a tough audience when it came to fear and manipulation. The locals were far more willing to believe in monsters. She curled her lips back to show her teeth, as if that might make the boy cower when her call on the Soul Plane hadn't. Valdis blinked, halting her approach when his voice sounded in her head. She hadn't reach out to make any connection, hadn't even considered it, yet here he was, speaking to her. That made things a little more complicated.

You are brave to touch the mind of a goddess, Valdis growled, allowing the soft hiss of the Void to slip into her voice, altering it enough to hopefully make her true voice unrecognizable should she meet this person in her human form. Don't you know this is a night for the Dead?

[soloflight]

Well, now that took Jacen aback, brown eyes widening at Valdis' response. He was used to picking up impressions of thoughts and feelings — if they could be called feelings — of various animals, but they hardly actually talked back. Unlike this one. And a goddess? Perhaps this wolf was of a sentient race, and a Force-sensitive one, too.

He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, but remained standing on the same spot. He wasn't afraid, just surprised, and a little wary. "I'm sorry, I didn't know," he said, ditching the telepathy; he wanted to befriend the wolf, not antagonize her. "That you're a goddess, I mean. I know it's a night for the dead." He bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from cracking some ill-timed joke about how obvious it was, because he wouldn't put it past the wolf-goddess to feed him to the ghosts for his insolence (or something equally sinister).

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis grinned wolfishly, her teeth flashing as she felt him hesitate and pull away. She could almost feel the wheels turning in his head as he evaluated her reaction to him and what she might be. The raised hands, a sign of respect and caution, yet there was that friendly edge to him still. In some ways, it reminded her of Wan, but making friends with this boy was counter to her current plans. So she laughed. A harsh and chilling sound, echoed by the hissing of the dark serpent.

Few dare to wander the streets this night, She lifted her chin, taking a few more steps in his direction. So I ask, whom among the dead do you seek?

[soloflight]

He continued to stand his ground even as the wolf approached, although her laugh did not fail to make a chill run down his spine. There was something dark, almost ominous to it, and he didn't like it. Probably because it reminded him of what happened that time, back in the bowels of Coruscant, when he'd called upon the dark side of the Force in his rage...

He hesitated at Valdis' question; not because the direction of their conversation made him uncomfortable, but because of the sharp ache that wormed its way into his chest. He glanced away for a moment, averting his gaze to the spirit lantern, before turning back to her. "My brother," he finally answered, his voice becoming as quiet as the parading phantoms — but it was a silence that spoke volumes. "I just want to... apologize."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis blinked. From her conversation with Jacen at the masquerade, his brother was alive, and here. Unless of course the two of them came from different times, just like some she had known had. The large black hound tipped her head, eyes curious.

You mourn one who lives now, she replied, Do you not care to see to the present? Or are you simply going to dwell on the past and future.

Skulduggery, Erskine and Anton had been able to see the present, and perhaps that's all that mattered, even if Anton was now dead.

[soloflight]

It was Jacen’s turn to blink. The wolf-goddess knew who he was? Or could she read minds, too? After all, they were communicating telepathically, although he’d decided to stop projecting his thoughts to her to avoid aggravating her.

“I see the present,” he responded slowly, trying to put his thoughts into words. “But I’ve not made peace with the past. I couldn’t save him, I saw him die and I—” He closed his eyes. “I just want to... say I’m sorry.”

He’d thought he’d come to terms with Anakin’s death, put it behind him, back on Yuuzhan’tar. But all it took was one look at the Anakin here and his wounds reopened. He was the big brother, he was supposed to protect him, but Anakin had died so he and the others could live, and it wasn’t fair.

[redlightgreenlight]

You do not need to make peace with the past to let go of it. She growled, eyes flashing in the darkness as she considered her next move.

Jacen's pain was a dull ache, a lack of forgiveness of himself more than anything else. The pain of a loss that couldn't be replaced, a very human sensation, yet one she could relate to. But she couldn't be friendly, or too kind in this guise.

Enjoy your life while you can, boy she growled, You never know when death will find you.

[soloflight]

Something about what she said took him aback, although he wasn't certain if it was her tone, or her actual words. Perhaps it was even the way her eyes flashed in the darkness, reminding him of the many times his mother affixed him with her powerful, rebuking stare.

"But how?" He pursed his lips into a thin line as he thought silently, How do you just let go? How would that be any different from forgetting? I don't want to forget.

At her words about death, though... he had to give her a wry smile. "I'm already dead, ma'am." A part of him had died on Myrkr. In the Embrace of Pain. In the Well of the World Brain. "I just haven't gotten around to lying down yet."