[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

[annihilist]

...Uh, what is right.

Devin is clearly bemused by Ilda's behavior. And her voice. Definitely her voice. He thinks he knows why she's flustered, and on a different day and in a different reality, he might lean on that. But he has nothing to gain from it, and he's also had very few interactions with teenage girls in the past 50 years.

He does parse that she wants him to stay to talk, even if he doesn't purchase anything. An eyebrow goes up, his expression turning wry. "Closer to the latter. Let's just say inviting ghosts into my apartment would be idiotic." Beat. "Do you need some water? You must have been talking to a lot of people today."

Okay, so apparently Devin can't resist a little teasing.

[ilda]

Some days Ilda is as perceptive as a brick, and today is clearly one of those days, because when Devin teases her about needing water she totally falls for it. "Oh yes please!" she exclaims, her voice back to its usual timbre. "It's been such a long day and there's so many people because this festival's really really fun and exciting and there's lots going on and lots of stuff to do—"

She pauses to breathe, and then, realizing how much she's been rambling, promptly turns sheepish. "If not a lantern, maybe some candy? It's not haunted candy, I swear. Or a mask!"

[annihilist]

Perhaps water isn't needed after all, but in order to get some Ilda would have to stop talking long enough to let Devin walk away. At least she sounds more normal now as she rambles.

"I don't have much of a sweet tooth," he declined. Her last suggestion, however... While Devin does not strictly want a mask, he is certain he will need one. The Fool would never pass up an opportunity like the masquerade. "But I may have use for a mask. Something simple, though. I prefer subtlety over extravagance."

[ilda]

Ilda visibly perks up at Devin’s interest in a mask. “Okay! Just a second—“ She crouches to rummage through the boxes she’s got in her stall, hastily looking for masks that meet his specifications. Before he decides to just walk away.

“Here you go!” she exclaims triumphantly as she holds out several masks to him in her cupped hands. Each a different color, including a lovely blue one at the bottom of the heap.

[annihilist]

Ilda's haste is probably wise; Devin could easily vanish in an instant if he felt like it, but this time he remains at the stall. He has patience enough right now for her eagerness.

Most of the selections she presents are either too fancy or not a color Devin likes much, but there's one that might work. He carefully pulls the blue one from Ilda's hands in such a way that the rest don't go tumbling to the ground and examines it more closely.

The glitter might be a bit much, but he has no doubt the Fool will easily outshine him. "This might do," Devin allows, turning it this way and that. "I suppose I had better buy it before I can second-guess the choice," the vampire sighs, digging out his rhinn. "I imagine most people are more enthusiastic about these things."