The Festival Continues [Day 144]

[bastionmods]

Who: Everyone
Open: Open
When: Day 144
Where: all over the Bastion
What: Day 2 of the festival because that other post filled up fast
Format: any
Warnings: none

Day 2 - Day of Hope and Bravery

Once again, at midnight, another torch arrives - this time with a horse along with the gear and bullshead. As before, they are list by Zulf. Some of the other decorations fade out, to be replaced by Yudrig or Lemaign-specific decorations like horseshoes, saddles, hammers and plants made of colored metal. This will continue to happen throughout the festival, with new decorations overshadowing old ones, but the old ones still remaining here and there.

During the previous day, conversations with a any of the NPCs (or the recently arrived Uras) will bring up the topic of the second day of the festival. Should you care to listen, you'll learn that they use the very early morning of this day to make wishes, wishes that you must think in to a horseshoe that will be left on the side of your home that faces where the "sun" would be rising (the closest approximation to "east").

Speaking of horses! There seems to be a pen with stallions! Unlike Pyth, one must ride one of these stallions and try to stay on it as long as they can while it bucks and jumps about wildly. Good luck to whoever can manage this, it is not an easy task at all! Only one person can win Yudrig's favor, because at the end of the day the stallions will all take off back to... wherever they came from. The person that manages to stay the longest, though, will win a lovely pair of Yudrig boots, and will gain a single very fast horse for the Bastion to keep.

Along with the horses, there will also be races! Three legged races, races while balancing odd objects on spoons, so many races! Most of these are for the kids to make up for the lack of kid-focused things from the day before, but adults are encouraged to help and participate.

Incidentally, respect is also given to those considered soldiers. Be it by their own mental thinking ("I am a soldier for justice/I am a protector, etc") or by their actual title (this includes exorcists, exorcists in training, rebel leaders, etc) but they will be honored on this day for their bravery, comittment and efforts. The same goes for masons. There will be a table set up with charms for the bracelets, specifically hammer shaped ones - everyone is welcome to take one, but anyone who isn't of this persausion may find them too heavy to wear. The charm can be removed, though, but remember to keep the bracelet!

With that in mind, about midday the center of the Bastion will be cleared and people will be asked if they would like to participate in a game of "Defend Lemaign". It's basically Capture the Flag, but with a singular goal in mind - only one team has a "flag" (actually a small hammer statue) and that team must defend it from the other team. Teams can be any size, but once that statue is grabbed and brought to the other side, OR the timer runs out with Lemaign still within his "temple" the game is over. This will continue throughout the afternoon.

When evening falls again, the second torch for the day will appear to be lit, this one decorated with hammers as well as the standard gear and bull. The day begins to wind down, though there are once again other things to do - this time an entire area dedicated to various sizes of building blocks ranging from small to huge. Go nuts, build what you want, show off your creations! And keep them, they will come in handy later! This is not just for kids, even if it seems like it.

There's also jousting taking place. Nothing as dangerous as true jousting - just wooden horses on tracks that have to be manually pushed along (so be sure to take a willing friend with yout) and padded poles that strike padded armor. Winners will find more charms for those bracelets that were given out as their prize, and five shards per win.

Also, something to keep in mind: Since the day is focused around bravery quite a bit, anyone who shows off a particularly awesome show of bravery (be it personal like asking someone out that you like, facing a mild fear and not running away from it, or something even more spectacular) you will inexplicably find your entire room decorated with horseshoes. Horseshoes everywhere. Why? Yudrig, that's why.

And anyone who visits Lemagin's shrine, for whatever reason, will find themselves inexplicably hit with a wave of optimism. Just for the day, though.

This night winds down much the same as before, and again the children are encouraged to sleep outside while lulled to sleep by tales of Yudrig and Lemagin's adventures.

Comments

[individuates]

Surprised as Kaoru was to find Seimei playing with the blocks, he couldn't resist watching from a distance. It was endearing, in a way. And as he watched, he soon enough figured out what it was Seimei was building.

The Palace had been lost long, long before he had been born but he recognised it, even if he had only ever seen models or renderings of it in textbooks, snippets of literature, paintings capturing the clothes of the time. It was strange to look back on it, on how he used to think. Of course they were all beautiful works of art and moving, in their own right, but for the longest time, Kaoru had only seen them as relics. He had never considered that something from a thousand years ago could have any way of touching his life now.

Funny, how things had worked out.

He rested a hand lightly on Seimei's back for a moment before moving to sit beside him, enjoying a closer view of his creation.

"...I can't imagine how beautiful it must have looked back then."

[yinyangfox]

He looked up when touched, smiling faintly before returning to his self-assigned task, stacking pieces together and turning things just so, determined to bring to life a piece of his own history, much the same way he'd done with the estate he shared with others.

"Am I to take it by your words that it no longer exists in your time?" he asked, a little sadness creeping into his tone. He should have expected as much. Japanese architecture weathered the ages well, but a thousand years was pushing it, even to his estimation.

[individuates]

"Mmm." He nodded, leaning his chin on his hands. "There were a lot of fires and... well, in the end they stopped trying to rebuild. The capital relocated east, then out of Kyoto altogether some five hundred years after that. There are models and stuff, but we only have drawings of how it used to look to base them off. I don't think they can really compare to the real thing..."

Running a fingertip along one of Seimei's rooftops he pouted in thought for a moment before stretching forward to grab his own box of blocks, settling down to rummage through for white pieces.

"Do you think we can keep these afterwards? I'm sure we can find somewhere in the house to put it."

[yinyangfox]

"They moved the capitol?" he asked, looking up slowly and arching a brow. "I cannot imagine the level of spiritual unrest in that area. Unless..." he trailed off, looking back down to the blocks, placing them atop one another with a faint smirk.

"Someone must be there to placate the spirits. There are not many with that level of skill and dedication. I wonder, who could it be?" he murmured, thinking out loud as pieces clicked together.

"We can put it in the common room we share, if you like. Though I do not know if they remain here after being built. Perhaps all of this disappears as mysteriously as it arrived."

[individuates]

"…I can't speak for how the spirits feel, but they seem to be pretty okay with it. There haven't been any particularly remarkable happenings so far as I know…"

White pieces secured, Kaoru pulled his pile a little bit closer and settled against Seimei to put them together. Yes, pressing up to Seimei so they were shoulder-to-shoulder cost him a little mobility in one arm, which in turn made it a little awkward clicking his blocks together, but he was more than content in the knowledge that Seimei was similarly impeded.

The facade of his home began to take shape in his hands; pillars and arches forming in symmetry beneath his fingertips, if not necessarily in logical order. He had always created this way - feeling first and figuring out later how to make things stand, rather than building from the ground up.

"The common room?" A fake-scandalised gasp. "But then where do we put the elephant?!"

[yinyangfox]

He wondered then what that meant in Kaoru's time. Were there other onmyoji? Had the arts survived the centuries? Had he? There was no way to tell now, cut off as he was from all of his arts of divination, but it was something to consider he mused as he watched Kaoru build.

"It is a large and mostly empty room, I am certain we can figure something out," he drawled with a wry note, dark eyes drifting over the red-head's face. A moment ticked by, then another. Reaching out with one hand he threaded his fingers into Kaoru's hair and drew his head closer so he could press a kiss to the top of it, closing his eyes and pretending for a moment that there was no one else around and his affection would not be so easily witnessed.

"I hope this is enough for you," he murmured, his tone suggesting he meant the life they were building and not the kiss.

[individuates]

"Hmm, but it would be a little confusing on the eye to have these two exquisite - and very different, mind you - works of art vying for attention, don't you think?" It was a little hard for him to keep a straight face during that one. The elephant, he would hardly call exquisite. It was a souvenir they had brought back from Bali and taken home with them, just because. Well, it was in the Bastion now. Trust that gaudy elephant to survive the apocalypse.

He gave another hum at the hand in his hair and shifted, sliding his arm though the crook of Seimei's so he could lean a little closer with a softer smile, his head resting on the onmoyji's shoulder.

"It is. You know it is."

[yinyangfox]

He snorted faintly at the comment about the elephant and model building, leaving it to Kaoru to decide. He had already made it clear that the red-head was in charge of decorating the house, so long as it wasn't too cluttered or garish, and Seimei's own room was left untouched. Minimalism was conducive to a clear mind.

When the boy's head settled on his shoulder, he leaned and rested his head atop Kaoru's, eyes remaining closed as he sat there, just content to share the space and moment. He was unconvinced it was enough, but when one wanted to give another the world and only had so much to work with, they were unlikely to ever be certain about what they did. So he made a soft sound of understanding, if not agreement, and rested a hand over Kaoru's, comfortable in that moment.

[individuates]

Looking up at him mostly just got Kaoru a nice close-up of Seimei's throat, but he didn't shift.

"It is, you know?" He threaded his fingers through Seimei's and pressed a little closer. "We came here with nothing and nobody, but now look at us."

[yinyangfox]

"Mm. I only wish there were more I could do. The Gods of this world are honest enough and do what they can, that much is obvious, but I still wish prayers were more readily answered. I want you to have everything you lost. Once, I might have been able to do that for you, but I am diminished. It troubles me. You deserve more," the onmyoji murmured, turning his head slightly and opening one eye to fix on Kaoru.

"I am not unhappy. I do not want to appear ungrateful. It is not for me that I want more; only you," he replied, turning their hands over and smiling faintly, thrilled by the simple touches and marveling over how he hardly felt a desire to recoil for the sake of appearances.

[individuates]

"I try not to think too much about what I lost. And when I do, I have to see it as just... being somewhere I can't get to right now." He sighed, turning his head to kiss Seimei's shoulder before smiling softly up at him. "I'd rather think about what I have right now and hold onto it as tight as I can."

"If you want to do more, then..." His cheeks puffed out for another sigh. As much as he wanted Seimei's word on this, he knew how unfair it would be to ask for a promise. "Just... don't let me lose you, all right?

[yinyangfox]

"I have no intention of leaving you, Kaoru. Ever. I mean that in every sense. Should these worlds change...I have every intention of finding you again. It is one thing to accept that the worlds have ended and what once was is no longer reachable. It is entirely another for the worlds to return as they were or to expand from this and us to be separated. I will always find you, Kaoru. I promise," he stated simply, staring down at the boy with a serious expression.

"If my gods can still hear me, I pray they make me keep my word, no matter the difficulty."

[individuates]

He pulled back for a moment, opening his mouth to speak, before giving up and laughing shakily.

"Not that I'm not an easy person to find, all things considered... but just in case, I'll be looking for you, too. Fair warning and all that." He considered himself to have a bit of a headstart in that regard. The pad of his thumb traced ever Seimiei's knuckles, back and forth as he settled down again with closed eyes.

"In the meantime, you can have me now. Interrupting and monopolising your attention when you're trying to recreate magnificent works of architecture."

[yinyangfox]

The onmyoji looked back down at their hands with a sigh, raising them to press his lips to Kaoru's fingers before letting go slowly and turning to regard the palace of blocks. It was easier to look at than thinking about what would happen if everything changed If he had to wait 900 years to meet Kaoru. Could he do it? well, it didn't matter if he could or not - he would.

"I can have you now, hm?" he asked, snorting a soft chuckle and shaking out one of his wide sleeves to wrap an arm around the red-head lightly. "Well, you can have me, instead. I can always be your Seimei whenever you like. Building things or breaking them."

[individuates]

A soft hum and a delighted smile at the kiss on his hand. In return, Kaoru leaned up to press a kiss to the corner of Seimei's mouth. It was strange, how such small things could be so wonderful. Of course he and Hikaru had always shared a certain kind of closeness - a familiar and comforting closeness they had had since they were very small, since before Kaoru could remember, that he never thought he could have with someone different. And Seimei was different. It was that fact that made what they had beautiful in its own right.

"I don't much like the thought of breaking things..." He had set down his house in his lap, and carefully moved it to the floor near his blocks, "How about we start with just building first?"

[yinyangfox]

"Mm. I'm much better at causing things to break," he remarked, running a finger over the lines of Kaoru's house idly. "Have I ever told you of the time Susa-no-O was summoned in Kyoto?" he asked, arching a brow with a faint smile.

"It's what happened before I came here. I nearly died trying to summon Amaterasu. Kyoto was a shambles. Nothing I did could ever be easy. Good grief. You know, looking back on it, its no wonder I was never able to make genuine bonds with people. What a disaster I must have always looked to them?" he chuckled, looking somewhat abashed for a moment and ducking his head.

"I've been significantly less trouble of late, I think. Perhaps losing all of my magic was for the better."

[individuates]

"There are a lot of stories you haven't told me yet." He leaned against Seimei a little teasingly as he replied, "But I don't mind. I understand that you need to stay somewhat puzzling. How else would you retain that certain mystique of yours?"

He was silent for a time after that, resting his head against Seimei's shoulder to listen.

"Well… Perhaps that's why your gods sent you to me." Maybe it was a silly idea, he wasn't sure, "I mean, I've not exactly done a good job of keeping you out of trouble, but you seem to have done a lot more building than breaking during your time here."

[yinyangfox]

"Ha! Terribly rude of you to say. I maintain a certain level of mystery regardless of stories told. Tch. To suggest otherwise is insulting," he grumbled, reaching up and pinching Kaoru's cheek.

"Hmpf. Maybe. I have done my best to be more accessible, to make a home and allow myself to be close to people I care about without fear of recrimination. So far it has proved easier than expected. Difficult, in some ways, definitely exhausting at times, but certainly more rewarding," he drawled the last, turning his head to press a kiss at the corner of Kaoru's mouth, lips curving into a sly smile.

"Building is at least proving more fun and less messy than expected."

[individuates]

He pouted a little at the kiss, despite being delighted. "...but don't I get special dispensation to know all the secrets? Being your boyfriend and everything?" Shifting a little, he moved to kneel facing Seimei, trying to keep as close as he could. Were they at home, he would have settled in his lap quite happily but... well. He couldn't throw all decorum out the window, could he?

"You seem to have resigned youself to a certain degree of mess that is incurred when building things, and that's a good thing. But you seem to think that building can't be messy and fun so... I need to prove you wrong on that point."

[yinyangfox]

"Oh really?" he asked, poking a finger against Kaoru's cheek gently. And what do you plan to do to prove this point, hm? Act like a child? Kick over my sandcastle, as it were?" the onmyoji drawled, gesturing to the blocks and reaching to loop his arm around Koaru's neck gently, brushing noses with him.

"You wouldn't. Your heart wouldn't be able to tolerate destroying my beautiful palace."

[individuates]

He laughed aloud at that, shaking his head and leaning closer.

"No, you're quite right, I could never bring myself to destroy something so beautiful. Though I wasn't exactly talking about building blocks. There are other things to build where a bit of mess is all part of the process, in one way or another." There was no need for Kaoru to do anything to really prove his point. He was relatively confident that time and patience would give him plenty of teaching opporunities, if he just let things run their course.

[yinyangfox]

"Mhm. Am I supposed to assume you're referring to you or me as a beautiful disaster? Shall I be flattered, or assume you quite full of yourself?" he quipped, tugging Kaoru off balance to fall into his lap, looking down at him afterwards.

"So will you be there to clean up all of my messes from now on?" the onmyoji asked, brushing red hair from large eyes. "You do so well keeping up after Tama-chan, I imagine you are ready for a much larger pet, hm?"

[individuates]

"Certainly not - I'd go so far as to say we're both beautiful and neither of us disasters." He smirked up from Seimei's lap, reaching up a hand to touch his cheek, then drape over his shoulder.

"...you are cute, you know that? And here I was thinking of messes we would end up making together."

[yinyangfox]

"Cute. Tch. Just what a noble wants to hear," he drawled, putting on fake airs and tilting his chin up in a huff. "Dreadful business calling a man cute when he is most clearly stately, regal, refined, elegant, dignified and any manner of things other than cute. Honestly, Kaoru."

He pouted, lowering both hands to the sides ot the boy's face, casually rubbing his temples.

"You are terrible for my ego."

[individuates]

"I'm not saying that you can't be all those things as well!" Kaoru had a remarkable talent for conjuring innocence, when the occasion called for it, and right now it certainly called for it. He pouted in return as Seimei touched the sides of his head. "You can be all regal and imposing to everyone else. But for me, you're cute and you will never not be cute. And good luck trying to change my mind."

He wriggled a little bit into Seimei's lap and shifted into his touch.

"I'm fantastic for your ego. Someone has to keep an eye on it."