[seasonal event] Fake smiles and happy never after

Maea Big dreamers shoot for open skies There existed an odd duality in grief during festive times, Maea decided. On one hand she was an emotional mess, her thoughts and feelings a fractured mess of sharp angles and bleeding cuts, like a cracked mirror held together only by a vague drive to keep going, though to what end she didn't know. On the other, she kept smiling and talking to those around her, helping out where she was needed and keeping busy with the farm and the feast even when she was not. Flowerbirth had arrived, flowers poked their heads from the ground with each day and between the thunder storms and the perpetual rain showers, the sun filled every inch of the world with light. A new year, a new beginning. Fiat Lux was just around the corner, but for the first time the could remember, Maea was just not in the mood for celebrations. "It's starting to smell good" she remarked, mostly to herself as she looked the lid from the huge kettle and fragrant steam wafted out into the room. Her stomach rumbled in response, but the girl ignored it. Turning back to the chopping block, she reclaimed the knife and resumed her task of cleaning and prepairing what others brought in for the feast. In particular the Magna Vermis, both abundant and delicious around this time of year. Outside the makeshift kitchen, the bustle of the marketplace filled the air with a lively cheer, aided by preparations well under way. Stores lined with banners, people laughing and working... Maea sighed and lowered her gaze, thoroughly disinterested. Kiada

It is another day, and another day of waking and feeling a strange need to go outside. A part of her that was so willing to remain indoors – to become one with the darkness in her heart and her soul. But she imagines the change is because of Auni, the Luxere as her companion that continued to bring light into the deepest recesses of her mind. She doesn’t think she’s getting better, and she blames it on her soul bonded, finding it easier to blame him for making her move on when she isn’t quite ready to let go just yet. Besides, Seiji and her still need to go pray for Ru’in and find out more about what kind of rituals the Naturals held for the dead. If for nothing else but to ease her mind, to focus on something else other than the what could have been’s. And so she steps out into the light, blinking for a moment with her pale, icy blue eyes as she takes in the sudden brightness from the darkness indoors. She holds the door open for Auni to bound out, his long knobby legs carrying him around the entry way of the home to the Settlement – knowing that Kiada would have to follow. And well, if she didn’t, he was prepared to turn around and herd her toward it. She needs it, he thinks. And she wants to argue, but she can’t find it within her to care much about it anymore. So instead of heading out on her own, she follows Auni as he explores. The deer bounding around each of the merchant carts, some surprised (she thinks at least) to see a Luxere remaining from Longnight. Especially one so young. He appreciates the attention regardless. But it’s when he notices a woman in a makeshift kitchen that he makes a line straight for it. He’s polite, at least. Standing outside the front of it with wide eyes and a head with antlers that hadn’t quite grown in just yet, his nub of a tail wagging in excitement. Kiada trails behind him, quietly chastising him the entire way there. She sighs quietly as she approaches and notices the woman and offers a quiet dip of her head in greeting. “He’s not usually like this, I’m sorry.” She says to the woman, prepared to grab Auni and leave before the smell of what she’s cooking reaches her nose. “What are you making?” She asks, perhaps a bit less tactful than she might have once been. But it came back to the could haves and would haves, and she finds that she doesn’t care to know what she could have been anymore. Maea KiadA and here you come, with a shield for a heart, and a sword for a tongue.

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Maea Big dreamers shoot for open skies Looking up at the sound of running hooves against the street outside, Maea found herself face to face with a tiny luxere calf that stared in through the open door with dewy eyes. Almost against her will she smiled, the allure of young animals always too hard to resist, and the glow of it lingered when pale eyes rose to the girl - or woman? - that came trailing after it. "It's alright" she said, "He must have smelled the apples. Someone brought a whole basket a while ago..." Leaving the knife on the cutting board, Maea wiped her hands on the apron she was wearing and went deeper into the room, where sacks and barrels full of supplies was gathering. Everyone did what they could to contribute, leaving what they had gathered and what they could spare, for everyone to share in equal measure during the Fiat Lux. Fishing out a wrinkled winter apple, the white-haired girl split it with her fingers and came back to offer one half to the luxere. "One treat, then you'll have to wait, same as everyone else" she told the calf. Then, at it's follower - keeper? Companion? Though she'd never heard of anyone having a luxere as companions before - she added "Oh, just prepairing for the feast. I'm parboiling Magna and other meat, taking inventory of the things people bring in, and such." It was a simple enough chore, boring but necessary. Looking at the other woman, Maea hesitated a bit, but then went on and asked. "If you're not busy already, perhaps you could lend a hand?"

It is evident, to Kiada, that Auni has chosen the right place. When the woman speaks, Kiada’s head lifts and her hair becomes a dark curtain that she pushes back out of her face, nodding in response. As if Auni knew it, too, his tail wags further and his hooves click against the floor as if he simply can’t contain his excitement and dances for the apple the girl fishes out. It is then when Kiada notices that there is an event that they are preparing for, and suddenly she feels a bit foolish at being empty handed. Auni is patient, despite the hooves clicking on the ground in his excitement. His head tilts, ears fanning out as she mentions that he’d have to wait with everyone else. And he offers a quiet bray of agreement before he takes the apple and seems to take his time with it – though you can tell he wants nothing more than to devour it whole. Kiada turns her attention to Maea while she speaks of the feast, an event that Kiada has not heard of, but she takes the moment to let her icy eyes scan the place before she nods slowly. But then, the pale woman poises a question to her, and Kiada finds her gaze snapping back to her as it settles in. Another distraction – another conscious effort to remove herself from her feelings and focus on something else, something beneficial even if she didn’t know what the feast was for or why they did it. What were they celebrating? She figures she can find out, and she pushes up her sleeves a bit as she nods. “Ah, yes. Yes, I can do that.” She offers a bit awkwardly, but tries to give the friendly woman a smile. “What would you have me do first?” She questions, eyeing the prepping station as she ties her hair back into a long dark braid. She’s familiar with knives, should the woman offer to have her cut things. Though while she hadn’t used most of her experience in cooking, it was still a relevant skill. “I’m Kiada, by the way. This is Auni.” She adds a bit after the fact, realizing perhaps a bit sheepishly, that she hadn’t introduced the two of them before the other woman had asked for help. KiadA and here you come, with a shield for a heart, and a sword for a tongue.

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Maea Big dreamers shoot for open skies Usually, Maea was the timid and awkward one. The one who did not really fit in, the one out of place and poorly equipped for the task at hand. It was not necessarily untrue here, but there was a definite sense of comfort in being on home ground with a simple task at hand. It bred confidence and purpose, the kind that made it easier to stand with a straight back and head high. "Thank you. I'm Maea," she said and gesture for Kiada to come inside. Auni received the other half of the apple, then Maea looked about the kitchen to see what needed attention first. "Well, there is a ton of Magna to clean and chop and boil" she said, reaching for one of the bags. Opening ut, she withdrew the long, skin colored body of a worm, long as her whole arm and twice as thick. It had no eyes, ears or legs, only a muscled body with a mouth full of near translucent teeth in one end and a hole in the other; indeed, a creature suited only for eating and defecating... and being eaten, of course. Hefting it onto the block, Maea used the knife to cut down the length of the creature, removed a thick skin and the innards, and cut the pale meat up with deft movements that suggested she had done it often enough cry. "Once the current lot is done, we make a new batch and set the meat aside in those barrels" she said. "Or you could do the inventory..." The white haired girl gave Kiada a sidelong glance, not sure whether she had the stomach for handling game.

If Maea didn’t know it, the happy sounds coming from Auni meant that she was his new best friend. As Maea hands him the other slice of the apple, he realizes there might be more and instead of being careful with the first half she’d given him he devours the second like a starving animal. Kiada’s attention is glued to Maea, however, so she doesn’t notice when his tongue slips out and he attempts to get the remnants off the ground. Kiada, meanwhile, nods to Maea while she’s following her inside to the kitchen where it appeared there was a lot of work to do. Kiada also had no idea what a Magna was, but she watches while the other woman pulls out a giant worm and begins to chop it up. Her head tilts curiously, perhaps a smidge close to an avian way as she nods once again. “Interesting.” She comments, not about how much work there was for it, but the choice of food. It isn’t a disinterested, surprised comment, but more of an intrigued sense of the word. “I can do that.” She offers to Maea, listening while she speaks of the inventory to take as well. But Kiada was far better with dealing with game, hunting, and fighting, than she ever was with holding a quill and writing. “Do you do this every year?” She asks with an actual amount of interest in her words that she hasn’t felt in a long time. It feels good to have something else to think about, something to do with her hands that she can say she’s accomplished a task that day. With it in mind, she listens to Maea’s answer and reaches into the bag to pull out another huge worm and finds a knife to follow the pale woman’s example. First, slicing down the center, removing the skin and innards, and cutting the rest of the meat up. While she’s not as expert at it as Maea, there’s a way that she holds the knife that suggests she’s familiar with them and has used them before. She reaches for another one, aiming to help the woman the best she could, but thinks that conversation might help make the time go by. “Are you from here?” She asks as well – imagining that the woman had to have been Native to know so much of this. Or at least, been here longer than she has. KiadA and here you come, with a shield for a heart, and a sword for a tongue.

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Maea Big dreamers shoot for open skies If Maea was disappointed at the lack of reaction to the Magna, the didn't det it show. Instead the simply nodded, found another knife för Kiada and scootched over to the side so that they would both have room to work. There was plenty to go around, and Maea soon fell into a rhythm of slicing, skinning, cleaning and chopping, with the occasional pause to check on the kettle and fetch another bag. "More or less" she replied, finding it much easier to talk when she did not have to look at the other person. "Some years I do other things, or try at least, but eventually I always end up in the kitchen." While laborious in its own way, the job was not that heavy and for someone with her lack of physical strength and... other talents... it was ideal. Ont of the way, out of the sun, and everyone else was glad to leave the task for someone else. Sneaking a peak at the dark haired woman beside her, Maea nodded again. "Born and raised.. You're not, I take it. This your first festival?"

“More or less.” Her gaze slips from the worm to Maea as she continues to speak, elaborating on what she usually does this time of year. Kiada nods in response, uncertain of what to say. When Maea had been here in the kitchens, she had been in a different world, in a different life full of rebuilding and spreading hope to the things lost in the black fog of night. Where strange creatures came out in droves. She felt closest to Longnight, she imagines, due to that strange time in her life. But there had been some happiness in it, some distractions aside from he near constant threat of death. She continues to work at the worms, her icy gaze returning to the knife she was working at to be sure she didn’t slice off a finger or something worse. As Maea spoke again, she nods quietly even if the other woman isn’t looking to see it. “Yes.” She begins. “I arrived when Deepfrost started. Didn’t know what to expect, but I stayed in the Rathskeller for most of it.” She offers a bit quietly, avoiding the part of weeping in the Infirmary for some peace and quiet. Avoiding the story of her long lost love dying on the doorstep of the tavern. As she works on the worms, she decides to pick another topic. Turning her head to Maea, she watches the other woman cut up another worm for a few seconds before she considers the question in mind. “What is this festival for?” She asks, turning her eyes back to her own work but peeking now and then to be sure she’s getting it right. KiadA and here you come, with a shield for a heart, and a sword for a tongue.

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Maea Big dreamers shoot for open skies Maea nodded, and considered the question while she let her hands keep doing the task she had done so many times she could continue with her eyes closed. "It's a celebration, really. For light returning, for making it through Long Night, for Flowerbirth and the start of a new year. We pray to Frey for a bountiful harvest, and enjoy ourselves for a day and a night... before the Longheat arrives with more work and no time for parties." She shrugged a bit, then threw a quick glance at Kiada. Moving away from the counted to check on the kettle, the knife kept chopping up the meat on its own, until the girl returned and resumed control over it with her hands. "You don't have anything like it where you are from?"

She listens to Maea speak of the festival, and something within her finds a glimmer of happiness at the joyfulness of it. It reminds her of the celebration they had in the Rift, when they awoke Hope and had all danced beneath the shadow of the Guardian. It was relief and promise, that what they had done had worked eventually. But now, now as she thought about celebrating it felt hard. She could have danced with Ru’in, married him, and now she felt like she had nothing. It wasn’t true, however, she had Seiji as her friend and Auni as her companion, but it still hurt. When Maea turns the question to her, she shakes her head a bit. “I don’t remember having many festivals. We had some get together events with friends but nothing quite like this.” She offers, glancing to notice that Maea is gone from her station yet the knife keeps chopping. And suddenly she wishes for her fire magic again, if only to watch something burn. But she stifles it down and continues until she has no more worms left and looks to find Maea again. “It sounds like a wonderful time, though. I’m glad to be able to be a part of it.” She offers thoughtfully, and she means it. Despite the darkness and sadness in her heart, she’s still here and the world has moved on. And perhaps that’s for the better after all. KiadA and here you come, with a shield for a heart, and a sword for a tongue.

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