Let the Festival Begin [Day 143 | Day 144]

[bastionmods]

Who: EVERYONE
Open: Open
When: Day 143 & 144
Where: All over the Bastion
What: The first two days of the Harvest Festival
Format Any
Warnings: None

For the past week or so, it may feel like to some that the Bastion is gearing up for something. And not anything bad, either. Something good and oh so needed. It's not just the people, the Caels and the Ura that are aware of what the coming days would mean if the world was still intact. It's like the very Bastion itself has suddenly gained new life, and there's a power over it that's greater than any person, creature or Core.

Anyone who is still awake as dawn breaks over the Bastion may find themselves inexplicably tired for no reason at all, and unable to give in to an intense need to close their eyes, just for a moment.

When everyone wakes, and I do mean everyone, the Bastion will be transformed. Decorations, lights strung across every angle, wreaths, tables with colorful cloths over them, streamers and banners and so much stuff just seemingly out of nowhere! The entire Bastion, suddenly a vibrant, beautiful place for a celebration. And not just any celebration.

The Harvest Festival!

Comments

[croceamors]

You can always take the drink away from her if you see her reaching for it.

[orzelbialy]

Polka and I are close, but I wouldn't ever presume to have that much authority over her. She's quite independent for her age.

[croceamors]

Then you'd let her drink if she decided to?

[orzelbialy]

Well, I would be concerned as to why she was drinking, as she certainly doesn't seem the type to do so socially. However if she truly wanted to I wouldn't stand in her way.

I would, however... keep a close eye on her.

[Over protective not!big brother.]

[croceamors]

[Wow where has he seen this behavior before]

Protective?

[orzelbialy]

... I have to remind myself daily that Polka is not Emilia, but it does little to make me treat her the same as I would my own sister, were she still alive.

[croceamors]

Then it would seem you're doing her a disservice.

[orzelbialy]

In what way am I doing Polka a disservice?

[croceamors]

Isn't it obvious? You're using her as a replacement.

Of course, I can only make such a guess by what you just told me, if you can't separate her from your sister so clearly.

[orzelbialy]

[This probably wouldn't be a good time to mention that Polka's world might also have been Frederic's dying dream, would it?]

Emilia passed well over twenty years ago. I have no reason to use Polka as a replacement. I miss her, and I see many similarities in her, but my desire to protect her comes from friendship.

[croceamors]

Are you so certain?

[He doesn't mean to be so condescending, really, sometimes it just comes out.]

[orzelbialy]

[Frederic's face screws up a bit, lips pressing tight and something of a flash of irritation crossing his face before it fades. He wants to be angry at the accusation, but speaking about it out loud for once makes him doubt his own words rather quickly.]

... the world that Polka and the others came from... for a long time while I was there, I was convinced I was dreaming. That, in the last moments of my life in Paris, France, I created a world to escape the pain of my condition.

It crossed my mind once, that Polka being so similar to Emilia was not mere coincidence.

[croceamors]

[Yeah, he thought so.]

And then you realized it was not the same.

[orzelbialy]

The longer I was in that world, the less I was able to guess what was coming next. What I thought was a predicable dream began to change on me. I began to doubt myself, my thoughts and even my own motivations.

Regardless... I clung to the idea of Polka being some one I could protect and save... even it if meant I would do so to the detriment of the relationships I had gained there, and my own life.

[croceamors]

You didn't trust her to protect herself?

[orzelbialy]

I trust that any world is cruel, and has it's own dangers, and that not everyone is capable of protecting themselves one-hundred percent of the time. Polka has shown herself to be capable on the battle field, but we would not be a team if we did not rely on our teammates for equal protection.

Outside of that... I merely want her to have the life she should have been given a hundred times over. No fourteen year old should be so accepting of her own mortality the way she ways when I met her.

[croceamors]

[Saix seems to consider that as he picks at some sort of meat stick, inspecting it more than seeming to have any sort of intention to eat it.]

...I can't understand that.

[orzelbialy]

What part can't you understand?

[croceamors]

Wanting to make someone go back and experience such a period of time instead of skipping over it.

[orzelbialy]

Oh... no, I wasn't being very clear...

[Okay, how to explain this...]

To Polka, she had been experiencing the same ten years over and over again. Some parts of her journey were different, but the ending was always the same - she was going to die.

She was aware that she was going to die. She went all those years facing every day as if it might be the last. There is no life in that. She may have had moments of joy, of pleasure and of everything else that anyone else might experience but they were tainted by knowing that she would have so few of them. No child should ever have to live like that.

It wasn't until I arrived that the cycle was broken. She is able to continue on, for however long that might be now.

[croceamors]

That makes more sense, then.

[orzelbialy]

It was a confusing situation. One I still find myself surprised at, when I actually explain it aloud.

[croceamors]

There are no doubt more confusing situations. I've had to explain strange things from where I am from as well. That is probably not the worst in terms of confusion.

[orzelbialy]

[Frederic lets out a soft, almost humored chuckle at that.]

Here, the situation is far less insane sounding. Were I tell it to some one from my original world, they would have had me locked up for clear mental instability.

[croceamors]

It sounds as though your World doesn't yet realize the existence of others, then.