ioduanlogs | [EVENT] THE TIES THAT BIND US

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[EVENT] THE TIES THAT BIND US

Characters: Everyone!
Date: February 14-28
Location: All around Aifaran
Situation: The last two weeks of February celebrate Tine's Commemoration, a celebration of renewing friendships and signaling forgiveness.
Warnings/Rating: Shouldn't need any, but add to subject lines as needed!

During the last week of February, the mood shifts around the city. The tension over the missing Kin'nal girl eases some, and there's a lot of talk of renewal and remembrance. In the days leading up to the 14th, some shopkeepers begin reorganizing to make space to feature knotworks and related crafts, and photos on Xa Xa feature knots in process, some made by special artisans. If asked, they will say that all of this is in preparation for Tine's Commemoration, two weeks that are dedicated to renewing and recognizing friendships, forgiving past grievances, and recognizing our most important ties through an exchange of intricately tied knots.

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.

In recognition of this tradition's roots, there is also an ornate tassel knot made for those who have been lost. The color signifies if they have been lost to death (black, often laced with another color like blue for the sea) or the Dreaming (gray). Most have the person's name woven into them, either on a metal disc or a piece of fabric. Rather than being worn, these knots are hung by the door as a waysign: come home; your spirit may rest here.

Shops around the city sell these knots, but there are also ample opportunities to tie your own! The Tifaut in particular take this tradition to heart and have areas set up at several of the city's parks and civic centers, including one at the Dreaming Bridge. They teach knot-making and provide materials (with a suggested donation for those who can afford it), or you can bring your own cord! Making knots of recycled material, like old clothing or retired fishing rope, can add special meaning to the creation - some believe that doing so means sharing a part of yourself with the intended recipient.

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 an open, 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. New Dreamfolk are always popular integrations of these kinds of festivals in the city, so you can write yours attracting lots of positive attention if you'd like.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A - Open
This whole affair is making Devin a little uncomfortable. Not that he wasn't already uncomfortable, but he's made a point to avoid friendship (although Konryu keeps dashing that effort). Leaving markers of friendship is even less appealing, though the vampire isn't immune to being sentimental from time to time. Devin still isn't sure he knows how to define friendship now, or what it's supposed to feel like. He remembers, sort of, but it's been a long time since he'd really let anyone in. Then Keeliai and Aifaran happened.

Generally speaking, he tries to avoid the booths and tables where people were making knots and goes about his business in the hopes of making it through the month unaccosted.

B - Valdis
It came to his attention that one particular style of knot was for forgiving people, not just for signifying friendships. After the rocky reunion with Valdis, Devin had mulled over what they had said and what the Void had done. His anger with her hadn't been entirely misplaced, but the bulk of it wasn't her fault. The five months at home had left him more shaken than he realized, especially in combination with the memories he had from this world. He considered buying a knot, and changed his mind at the last second. Devin was adept enough to make one or two himself.

At the Dreaming Bridge, Devin went to Valdis' room and hoped that her roommates weren't around. If she wasn't in, he might just leave the corded gesture there.

In his efforts at remaining unaccosted, Devin is most assuredly unsuccessful.

When the Fool falls into step beside him, it's clear that he himself has made the most of this Tine's Commemoration... or at the very least, has enjoyed the opportunity to add additional new crafts to his repertoire. A few elegant-looking knots have been braided into his amber hair; they pair nicely with the wooden jewelry he seems partial to.

"You look as though you are doing everything in your power to avoid even the mildest brush with these festivities," he teases; there's a kindly barb in his voice, a bit of wit in his gaze.

Great. Devin is beginning to think he's a magnet for the Fool, somehow. The man looks even more whimsical now with the knots braided into his hair. The remark pulls an eye-roll from Devin.

"That would be because I am avoiding them," he replies tersely, continuing to walk without increasing or decreasing his speed. "Your powers of observation are astounding."

The Fool only smiles, like Devin's abrasive commentary is water rolling off so many feathers. He quickens his stride enough to pull in front of Devin and hold up a slender hand to stop him. "Well, accept that you can't avoid me, at least for the moment," he declares without losing his smile. Then he reaches into one of the pockets of his scarlet cloak and withdraws an artfully rendered knot--the one intended for friendship.

He extends it out to Devin, letting it rest flat against his own palms. "For you." The look he gives Devin when meeting his eyes, despite the whimsical quirk at the corners of his lips, is quite serious. One might get the impression that such gestures from the Fool are not made lightly.

Devin eyes the Fool with annoyance as he has to pull up short, folding his arms across his chest. The man doesn't present much of an actual obstacle from a physics standpoint, but in all likelihood he would just corner Devin later on rather than give up.

The annoyance falters when he's presented with a knot, replaced with uncertainty. Snippy, dismissive comments form on the tip of his tongue, and not one of them feels right. His posture doesn't actually shift, and yet the cut of his shoulders appears stiffer.

"Why?" is all he can think to say.

The knot remains offered out; Devin hasn't taken it from him yet, but he hasn't rejected the gesture, either. The Fool regards him archly. "Why not?" he rejoins, and holds the knot nearer to him. His smile grows wry, and he teases, "White not your colour?"

Friendship isn't my color, Devin doesn't say, partly because that's not true and partly because it sounds stupid even in his head. He's not good at this sort of thing, and he knows it.

That is also a frustrating non-answer. "I'm led to believe that you only give those to someone who deserves it," Devin contends, shifting in such a way that his discomfort is more obvious.

He is discomforted, and the Fool isn't making this any easier for him. To be fair, he isn't intentionally trying to make it difficult, either.

"Have you not been a friend to me?" he ventures instead with raised eyebrows and a careful look at Devin's face. "You've aided me when I've needed help, sought to right wrongs when you've seen them. We have, the both of us, shared details of our pasts with each other, without question or judgment."

He offers it out again. "Please," he entreats quietly.

The Fool doesn't know yet the magnitude of what he's offering and asking. A few others from Keeliai do now, and even them Devin doesn't call friends aloud. It's not that he doesn't consider them to be, more or less, but the vampire has isolated himself so much for the past six or seven decades that he's not sure what friendship is supposed to look like any longer.

But the Fool is right about all of those things, and if that's the bar of what friendship means (for him or objectively, it doesn't really matter), he can't duck out of this with a lie. It's fitting, he thinks, that this festival is about knots; it has certainly gotten him tangled up.

There may as well be a chasm between them, despite being right in front of each other. Slowly, almost hesitatingly, Devin takes the white cord from the Fool and holds it carefully. "I wasn't aware that added up to being a friend," Devin replies quietly, looking down at the knot. The statement is uncharacteristically honest, absent any edge though the tension hasn't ebbed from his shoulders.

As though in small acknowledgement of that quiet, rather vulnerable-sounding honesty, the Fool's tone remains gentle, without any witticism or barb he might inject at another's expense. "It adds up to the beginning of one," he ventures instead. "Of friendship."

When Devin takes the knot, he drops his hands to let them rest loosely by his sides, but there's clear gratitude in his expression. Maybe even a touch of wry affection, too, for this recalcitrant fellow who reminds him, in so many ways, of another who was dear to him, in another life. Perhaps that's why he's willing to take chances where others might not. "Come," he suggests, a bit of laughter entering his voice, "if this festival is not to your liking, why don't we escape it and find some other place to explore within the city? Or perhaps without?" He's yet to leave the bounds of Aifaran itself, and his curiosity about it is practically brimming over as he makes the suggestion.

Valdis did not much feel like joining the festivities, so she was hiding in her room. She had, however, acquired a few strings of cording to make knots. Three of the ornate tassel knots sat on the small bedside table, all grey with various accent colors. One with red, one with white, and the last with black, though no names accompanied them. What she planned to do with the rest beyond what she had already done, she had no idea. Her fluffy, white cat sprawled out on her bed, sleeping, but his tail twitched and his ears shifted when he heard the footsteps coming up the hall. She looked up, checking to see who might be approaching as he released a curious mew and jumped off the bed.

Before he even reached her room, Devin could tell that someone was inside. There was the cat - apparently the Dreaming had seen fit to bring Anani back, too - and one person. It was probably Valdis, if he had to guess, but there was no guarantee. Anani did what he wanted.

The vampire paused in front of the door, hesitating briefly before he knocked. "Valdis?"

Valdis recognized the strange lack of normal soul energy before Devin even said her name. She didn't move, not sure if she was ready to interact with him one on one again. Their parting hadn't been either amicable or uncivil, but her hesitation lingered. Anani mewed loudly at the door, rubbing against it and looking at her expectantly. When she continued to hesitate, the cat reared up on his hind legs and batted at the door handle, putting his paws on the lever and pulling on it so the door opened.

Devin had not expected Anani to be the one that answered the door, and the fact that he did said something on it's own. It might have bothered him, if he hadn't come bearing more than just the symbolic knot.

He blinked down at the cat for a few seconds, then pushed the door open wider but remained on the threshold. She could slam the door in his face if she felt like it. "Your cat is alarmingly intelligent," Devin declared. "Though I'm not sure he got the memo about not wanting visitors."

Valdis stared at her cat in disbelief. The fact that he had figured out how to open the door explained how he kept getting out, but his intelligence had to be far more accidental than anything else, right?

"He was blessed by an archangel," she explained, "I'm sure the heightened intelligence must be a side effect."

She had no reason to send him away, or be hostile, but she wasn't entirely sure why he had seen fit to visit.

"Can I help you with something?"

Meanwhile, Anani was winding himself around the vampire's legs, purring madly.

"That could explain it," he agreed, perhaps using the remark as a way to stall.

Anani had evidently not forgotten him, and Devin gave the creature a blank look for the affection it was demonstrating. At least he was passingly familiar with the cat, unlike the bibiru Leo kept shoving in his face. (They are cute, but he'll never admit it aloud.)

"Not exactly." Devin shifted his weight over his feet uncomfortably, eventually reaching into his pocket to extract the dark red knot he'd tied a day or two earlier. He held it up between his fingers. "Apology accepted." A slow breath. "And I owe you an apology as well."

Valdis tipped her head, arching a brow almost in amusement, but not quite. His hesitation and apparent discomfort over the acceptance of her past apology made little sense. Unless of course it was more to do with recognizing that she hadn't been the only one at fault.

"You don't have to stand outside you know."

After all, this wasn't Joss Wedon's Buffy. She shifted over on the bed to make room for him to sit if he wanted, picking up the various colored cords and setting them aside. Anani seemed to take this as an invitation for him, so he darted over and jumped back up on the bed.

"I didn't want to presume I could waltz into your personal space," Devin responded, crossing the threshold and closing the door most of the way. "You already have roommates who do that."

As did he, although he tried not to be around them when he didn't have to. Devin lingered by the door for another moment or two before crossing the space. She didn't seem overly displeased with him, for which he was thankful.

"I hope the intent makes up for the lack of artistry," he added, a bit more wryly as he holds out the knot for her. It wasn't poorly-made by any stretch, but crafts weren't really his thing.

"Oh, please," Valdis rolled her eyes, "You aren't nearly as aggravating as the first roommate, and I'm pretty sure the second one is too intimidated to invade my personal space."

Besides, it wasn't like the two of them hadn't seen her naked. That might not have been her best move, though it had been amusing at the time. Anani reached up with a paw to bat at the knot, but Valdis put her hand on his head and he turned his attention to her instead, allowing her to gently take the knot from Devin.

"The intent is often more important than how beautiful something appears," she replied.

She'd seen it with parents especially, those who treasured gifts from their young children as if they were worth more than gold.

"Thank you."

He raised his eyebrows slightly. "I'm led to understand that respecting boundaries is a thing normal people do," Devin returned.

Controverting acceptable social behavior was something they both did intentionally, but at times like these it seemed pertinent to take a different tack.

It took some effort to hold her gaze, but he did it. "Most of my social skills are faked - I learned more by imitation than by any sort of instruction. Fit in or die, which I'm sure you're familiar with," he said, hooking his thumbs into his pockets. "It's what I fall back on when being me seems unsafe. I'm not saying it's right, just that it's what I know."

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