[EVENT] A CITY UNDAUNTED

[khuimods]

Characters: All
Date: Throughout February
Location: Aifaran
Situation: The city is still recovering from the massive storm in December but progress is being made; an important festival is held in defiance of the devastation, to celebrate and to strengthen.
Warnings/Rating: Descriptions of natural disaster damage; please add warnings as appropriate in headers


Ongoing storm recovery continues steadily, with signs of life returning to normal emerging in some areas of the archipelago. Shops slowly begin to open in the least-affected areas of Aifaran, and a good number of people are able to return to their homes, reducing the stress on the shelters and city resources. Mysteries remain, and the city pushes onward.

I. QUESTIONS AND CONSTRUCTION

By February, most of the debris has been cleared from the streets and collected outside the city. These piles are slowly but surely being sorted into piles based on size and material. The archipelago is not an endless bounty of resources, and everything that can be reused or recycled, will be. It is hard, messy work, but there is an air of renewal emerging during this process. Rebuilding and new construction begins in earnest.

More difficult is the effort to return personal items to their owners, or to next of kin. Lost-and-found sites at various shelters and other service centers begin the long and sometimes painful process of cataloging everything that's been brought to them.

There is much debate about what to do with the trees that sprang up in the wake of the storm - much is still unknown over whether or not they may prove a danger to the city as a whole or not. Much of these discussions are happening at the Aisling Tower and there is the occasional open forum in which city folk may give their own input and experiences.

Rather abruptly, the handful of buildings in Aifaran that had remained stubbornly flooded empty of water. The water does not suddenly remember it is subject to gravity and drain out into the streets, however. It simply vanishes. Inside, everything is drenched, but not in the way one would expect after over a month of being completely submerged. Paper is sodden without disintegrating, fabric is undamaged- even food doesn't appear to be spoiled. Here and there, furniture and loose objects will have been moved but overall nothing has been displaced. The smell of sea salt - and, oddly, jasmine - hangs in the air. It only takes about a week for the drowned buildings to fully dry out, leaving residents and owners only that lingering scent and too many unanswered questions. The Sentry declares them safe enough, though researchers delay people from returning for another week while they do some tests.

Though preliminary investigations didn't turn up anything, those who returned to their homes that were flooded have reported unusual lapses in time. They can be inside for what feels like a few hours and go out to find it's still the middle of the day and vice versa. There is also reports of the feeling of a strange presence, objects moving, disorientation and a lack of spatial awareness.

II. TINE'S COMMEMORATION

As a mark of shared determination and camaraderie, the city council announces in early February that Tine's Commemoration will be held despite the lingering effects of Xi Tianlong's claws. In fact, a prominent guild of merchants in Malimo have stepped forward as official sponsors. Tine's Commemoration is a somewhat literal twist on the traditions of many Dreamfolk: rather than featuring a romantic holiday, February is a time dedicated to renewing and recognizing friendships, forgiving past grievances, and recognizing our most important ties through an exchange of intricately tied knots.

In the days leading up to the 14th, the lingering cloud of tension and worry from the storm gives way to tentative hope. There's a lot of talk of renewal and remembrance. Merchants and artisans band together to create pop-up or shared shops featuring knotworks and related crafts, as well as collaborative spaces for the community at large to gather and learn how to tie knots. Many of these spaces become impromptu service and support centers, with people finding ways to help each other and forming new friendships they otherwise would not have.

There are specific knots and knot colors meant to signify different kinds of relationships. Friendship knots come in white and blue. White is for the bond of new friends, blue to recognize the joy of old friends. The blue knots typically are added together in a series, one made for each year of the friendship and tied to each other sequentially. More complicated knots are made when forgiving a grudge or past grievance, or to tell someone that they are considered family. While not a major focus of the exchange, there are also multi-colored knots for romantic relationships.

Knots can be worn as jewelry or braided into hair (or sometimes hair itself gets tied, with one friend attending to the other's hairdo), and it's customary to keep them on your person throughout the month. While they can be given or exchanged all on their own, it isn't uncommon for knots to come with small gifts or trinkets as well. After February comes to a close, it's important to store the knots somewhere safe, often in a special box or bag with numerous pockets.

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OOC Notes: This is a mingle-log for the entire month of February. Tine's Commemoration is a game-wide event for your characters to participate in (or try and avoid, if they're that type) as much or little as they want to.

Provided below are some starters, but you can make your own too if none of these work for you!

Comments

yes go for it! I'll fill out your permissions too

[zohvin]

"Yes, go ahead," Zohvin said as he placed the knot into her hands, careful of the trailing edges. He had already decided that there was no getting past needing assistance, so as long as he could manage to mostly put it back together on his own, he'd be satisfied.

"You're awfully polite for a youngling, aren't you?" His comment is a little on the dry side, in such a tone that he could deny having a sense of humor at all if need be. "Who is it that goaded you into lending a hand for all of this?"

Thank you! =D I look forward to fun based on those answers~

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita nodded as she took the knot, frowning slightly as she touched it gently along the threads. As she thought, and spoke, she slowly coaxed the threads into undoing their less-pleasant knots. /Work with me like this, and we'll begin again.../

"No goading required," she answered.

"This sort of event isn't all that strange for me, for more reasons than one."

Both the mourning, the knotting itself, and what those various knots represented.

[zohvin]

Zohvin watched with muted surprise as she said something that... didn't seem like Basic, not like he knew it, but understandable all the same. The Dreaming was known to help along understanding other people, but something about it prickled at him as being unusual. Whatever the case, she seemed to be making headway with unraveling the worst of the knot faster than he had made it.

"Then you have similar traditions where you're from?" He asked musingly. "This particular custom is new to me, but it's a big galaxy. I can't claim to have seen everything."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita focusing on the knot meant she wasn't reading Zohvin's expression.

"Not exactly - it's just that, in my line of work, dexterity and a keen eye count for a lot. It's not a big leap from the memorial customs I do know, though."

She turned back to the Speech-whispering, coaxing the thread back to its original state - then, once all that's left knotted is salvageable part, she held it up to give back.

"Think you'll be all right from here? Or I can grab some thread of my own, and we could make it together."

[zohvin]

Zohvin gingerly took the knot back from her, again surprised by how quickly she had unraveled it. He does briefly wonder if she used the Force - but it was terribly difficult, if not impossible, to use that kind of finesse with the Force at all. Something else was the cause, then, something unusual like a Talent.

"Perhaps we ought to make it together. I'm more likely to go off-track again if I'm left to my own devices," he admitted, with some awkwardness in his tone that wasn't entirely an act this time.

"What is your line of work, if you don't mind me asking?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

Wizardry was similar to the Force, but not the same - at least based on the popular culture conception-portrayal of the latter.

Digging around on her side of the stall for the thread in question, she answered, /Wizard./

Servant of Life, one who helps things grow in their own way - such is the weight of the word she pronounces in the Speech.

Though it's muffled a little, given Nita wasn't looking at Zohvin when she said it.

[zohvin]

Muffled or not, it's a word he's never heard before, even in the basic garden-variety sense. His familiarity with it doesn't matter nearly as much as the strange way that hearing the word gives him a sense for the full meaning, the realization that he shouldn't have understood it nearly so well sending a shiver down his spine.

"That's a new term for me," he admitted as he took a seat in front of her stall, his tone still even. Zohvin had always been quite good at acting under pressure, and getting a little spooked wasn't enough to throw him off. "But many things here have been completely new. At least this place is charming enough, for being something of a backwater planet."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Resurfacing with the thread, Nita nodded.

"It wouldn't be the first time there's only been one wizard in an area, in my experience."

Being unable to contact other wizards was another matter, however.

Nita gave a wry smile.

"The planet I'm from has that sort of reputation, too, compared to the rest of the galaxy."

And the peoples of Earth at large didn't even know it!

[zohvin]

Staring to slowly relax again, Zohvin offered her a faint smile in return. "That's a shame. There's quite a lot you miss out on by being so isolated - the holonet, for instance. The network here can't hold a candle to it." It was honestly nice to find someone who knew what he meant when he spoke about the galaxy at large, instead of assuming that he was talking about shunts or was some kind of astronomy nut.

Zohvin laid his knot out in front of him, smoothing out the threads and eyeing it critically before taking another stab at tying a section together. "So you work without backup, then? That sounds like a lot to have on your shoulders."

[unfavorableinstigation]

While the connections between Instrumentalities - not all Manuals were books - wasn't quite the same thing, the idea of non-Earth internets didn't surprise Nita either.

"Not often, actually; it's just not unheard of. Being a wizard means being ready to put your life on the line for another's everyday, so a support system is really important."

It didn't mean a person would, but all it took was one mispronounced syllable in a spell, or one deal where you didn't read the fine print - or even where you did, but the price was life.

[zohvin]

Zohvin gave her a brief searching look, quietly deciding that he didn't have much to lose by sharing information. It never hurt to extend friendship to someone with power - and even if he wasn't quite sure what Nita could do, it would be far worse to get on her bad side and find out the hard way later.

"I can imagine so. It reminds me of something from my part of the galaxy." Zohvin's gaze went back to the knot he was working on, fingers smoothing over the completed top part of the structure. "There are a small fraction of beings born with a power that they can use for amazing feats, once they know how. But choosing to learn means picking a side in a war, and there are many, many people who were never given the opportunity to choose."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Well, wizards aren't born with their power; it has to be offered, and taken on Oath, to be followed according to the wizard's best judgment... but you're right about there being a war."

Though they may not be thinking of the same one.

[zohvin]

Zohvin nods, his fingers working at continuing the knot he started, though a bit slower and more carefully now. It's less an issue of dexterity and more that the mourning knot was elaborate and unfamiliar. He hadn't actually sat down to work on arts and crafts since he was a youngling.

"That's how it always happens, isn't it? Where there's power, someone will take that power and abuse it." Did wizards have their own version of Sith? Dark wizards? It seemed likely enough to him.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita's taking her own knot slowly, so Zohvin won't have to scramble to keep up, and so all her hand motions are easily visible.

"Someone, yeah. It's never absolutely impossible for someone to start on that slippery slope. Or jump it."

Zohvin wasn't wrong - while wizardry wouldn't let itself be used for the Lone Power's aims directly, there were still workarounds, and Overshadowed wizards, rare as they were...

"It helps when you're not the only one making decisions on how to use that power."