Festival Log: March, Eostre

[faileas]

Festival Log: March, Eostre

Aefenglom's spring holiday of Eostre has three main features: parades, pies, and public drinking. It's a time to celebrate the warming of the weather, and being able to enjoy the outdoors again with the coming of spring, though stray patches of snow can linger around the very edges of the city, clinging on. Parades are held for anything under the sun, often forming up in the streets at the drop of a hat, at any time of day or night, and swelling with dancing, singing people as it progresses through the city. Along with flower crowns or flower-adorned hats, many natives hang bells on their clothing, to jingle merrily as they dance. This is a holdover from the old days where they'd use it to invite the Fae in for Boaltinn later in the spring. While it's lost that meaning, this year, many artisans are selling quite decorative sets of bells to adorn clothing and hang from eaves of homes, trying to rekindle interest in an old, silly tradition. Food and drink are sold on street corners for a pittance: primarily pies of various flavors (meat that isn't of the mystery variety tends to be more pricy, but vegetable, fish, and fruit types are popular), and lots of alcohol, including a clear, sweet liquor served with tiny, delicate blossoms floating on top. Members of the City Guard go light on public intoxication during the holiday, so long as you aren't hurting anybody in your drunken stupor, but anybody starting fights or traumatizing children might be thrown in the drunk tank overnight to sober up. Maybe you’ll make a friend in there! Music is a big part of the holiday every year. While last year’s musical talent show does not return, that doesn’t mean the scene isn’t hoppin’ - many are searching for new sounds, from wealthy patrons who would love to sponsor a budding musician’s work, to casual groups humming bars together in the pub.

➤ I. Ice and Fire With the many bells being hung around the city this year and worn like an Eostre fashion craze, it seems certain Fae-adjacent beings have gotten the wrong idea, and assumed themselves invited. Unusually, both tribes of pixies that have been spotted in Aefenglom in recent times have taken up this imagined invitation, and needless to say, the harbingers of winter and the messengers of summer do not like each other. Ice pixies and summer pixies both can be spotted around the city during the three days of Eostre, making war out of love. Pockets of clashing weather sprout up all around Aefenglom and its surroundings. One block might reach scorching temperatures, either dry or terribly humid, while on the next street, it could be snowing, hailing, or freezing over. The pixies clash with each other anywhere and everywhere, and you’re very likely to get pulled into the mess, becoming the victim of their particular brands of mischief or getting pulled into a physical skirmish - beware of tiny pixie slaps and kicks, and hair pulling. Lots of hair pulling. If you're wearing bells or have hung bells outside your home, you're more likely to see the pixies visiting, for better or worse. Summer pixies riding their fire-scarab beetle mounts like to set things aflame or summon up hot winds, while the ice pixies prefer to keep it cool - in the most literal senses of the phrase. Both breeds of pixie are incomprehensible to speak to save for a few choice bad words they throw around, and both are free with the rude hand gestures - at you and each other. They can also both be placated with offerings that suit their tastes or simply... eliminated, if that’s more your speed. Fewer in numbers and preoccupied, they cause less damage this time around, too busy squabbling with their polar opposites, and are mostly annoyances that can be worked around. They’ll move on of their own volition after Eostre, when the residents of Aefenglom ditch their many bells, but it might be good to curb the potential for property damage by getting them to leave early.

➤ II. Color Wars In keeping with the spring season, a new activity has started up at the Coven, and quickly spread to other parts of the city. Developed by a group of young and bored Witches, teams or pairs are formed, as many as need be to include everyone, and “eggs” full of harmless, colored powders, paints or dyes, all bright and cheerful in a rainbow of hues, are handed out to be thrown at each other in big mock battles. It’s messy, it’s colorful, it’s quite fun, and children and drunken adults all over the city are getting in on the action. Baskets of these rainbow eggs can be picked up from the original gaggle of Witches, or copycats, for a pittance - or free, if you’re nice enough - in order to stage a color war of your own or join in on a battle already in progress. Even if you don’t choose to join in on the fun, you might get roped into it regardless, as they’re thrown from parade floats or lobbed from upper story windows. You can’t be too mad at them, right? It’s all in good fun! Except some batches have been tampered with by pranksters, perhaps taking a page out of the pixies’ book. While many of the eggs thrown are just regular projectiles filled with harmless colorants, others have been enchanted with certain effects, usually but not always determined by color. These effects run from the slightly annoying to the unfortunately embarrassing, though none of them are actually dangerous. They can “stack” if one gets hit by multiple affected balloons, but they only last a maximum of four hours. Effects run the gamut, and can be just about anything you can imagine as long as it isn’t outright dangerous, but some examples include: getting stuck like glue to the next person you touch; only being able to tell the truth or only being able to lie; being unable to understand or speak any actual languages - only funny gibberish; being preceded by the sound of a string quartet wherever you go; the uncontrollable urge to laugh, or sleep, or cry, at anything and everything; losing all sense of direction; growing a beard or moustache that keeps growing longer as the minutes pass; unable to get traction, sliding around on solid ground like it’s ice; temporary growing or shrinking; swapping appearances (as an illusion, not a transfiguration) with another person; and more! Players are welcome to make up their own silly effects as they please.

➤ III. Color Wars: Red Light Edition (NSFW) As often happens, this innocent new game gains traction in the Red Light District, with a distinctly spicy twist. The color wars happening in the Red Light District are for adults only, and without fail, they stay contained, never spilling out into other districts. That doesn’t mean they are any less wild, though. The idea of the game remains the same, pelting those around you with eggs filled with different colored powders or paints. While the eggs elsewhere in the city are brightly colored, Red Light District eggs tend to be darker, more jewel-toned or neutral shades to distinguish them, for anyone who might not be looking for that sort of fun. They took precautions, so if you wander into something you aren’t prepared for, that’s really on you, right? Nearly all the Red Light District eggs are enchanted in some way, and have various sexy or embarrassing effects, including but not limited to: an excess of desire; certain embarrassing physical reactions; an increase in pleasure in others from your touch, or vice versa; the feeling of being tied up, ranging from just tugging sensations to full body restriction of movement; growing or shrinking of certain body parts; spontaneously vibrating fingers; the urge to confess your feelings for another person; and many more. Like the more “work-safe” enchanted eggs, the effects of the Red Light eggs last for four hours at most, and effects can be stacked by getting hit with different colors. These games also tend to last for much shorter times as the participants wind up slipping off to rent rooms for a few hours. You may want to follow their lead if you find yourself in the middle of it. Or maybe just hunker down somewhere with a friend until it’s safe to walk the streets again. Up to you!

Welcome to March's festival, Eostre! These prompts are just some examples of what's going on in the city from the 21st to 23rd. You're also welcome to draw inspiration from the blurb on the Festivals Page to write your own prompts. As always, if your thread has or will contain NSFW content, please content warn appropriately in your headers!

Comments

[getting_better]

[ There's a fifty-fifty chance, which he knows by experience. ]

Lady, you have no ide-AH! [ He immediately screams like a little girl who found a spider in her skirt as a stray egg pelts him right in the face, exploding into a pale pink mist. Bishop immediately falters and falls flat on his face grunting, although his voice is a lot more pitched and he seems to have gotten smaller. Much smaller.

He gets up, dusting himself off and immediately noticing how his clothes are almost slipping off of him. His pants have fallen to his ankles, the katana he carries clattered loudly to the floor as did his gun, and his shirt and coat are just barely hanging on, but more than that everything also seems to have gotten...bigger. He pats himself, discovering his slightly rounded face and smaller frame - shivering slightly in horror as he turns to Mira. ]

....Please tell me I'm not a ten year old.

[ Eleven, actually, but he doesn't know that. ]

[inlikethebrume]

[Mira covers her mouth but not just in shock. You see, once the mist clears and Bishop is seen as a tiny one, it's also a means of making sure she's not seen trying to giggle.]

I won't say it then. But your clothes are a bit too big for you now. We should probably try and fix that.

[getting_better]

[ He turns to her with a frown that, as an adult, would tell others to back away. As a child, he just looks like he's been grounded for something stupid. He raised an accusatory finger at her, sleeves covering his hand but the point of his finger is unmistakable. ]

You. You're laughing. Don't lie, I can tell!

[ Because he'd do the exact same thing if their situation was reversed. ]

[inlikethebrume]

I won't lie then.

[Haha he looks cute when angry. Mira's not sorry for laughing, she fucking needed this.]

Might you have a belt? Can't imagine you wanting to hold up your pants all this time.

[getting_better]

[ He puffs his cheeks as his emotions rise in ways he didn't know they could. ]

...I have a belt.

[ He says while looking away, holding his shirt down with one hand while casually trying to scoop up his belt and pants. ]

Don't look! It's embarassing!

[ Even little boys have dignity. Except when they don't. ]

[inlikethebrume]

[/sigh]

Fine fine. Besides, nothing I haven't seen before.

[Nonetheless she does turn away to give him privacy.]

[getting_better]

What? A grown man being brattified? That's just wrong.

[ Also there's no such word. He appreciates her looking away but, boy oh boy is the struggle real. For one, the pants are too big and too long, his sleeves are getting in the way, and there are no holes in the belt that allow him to actually secure the pants up.

So he's grumbling and whining in his little pitched child voice as he juggles trying to keep his pants up while trying to keep the sleeves from rolling down his arm and covering his hand.

He's not successful. He does succeed in so far as he sounds like child stomping around because mommy won't let him have ice cream before dinner. ]

[inlikethebrume]

I've seen men be brats without shrinking so you're fine.

[She was thinking other things that wouldn't phase her. Like physical things. This must be bothering him quite a bit if all the noises were an indicator. She knows that he wouldn't like it if she peeked but Mira can't help it. Seeing Bishop trying to do the simple matter of keeping his pants up...well, she can't just stand there and do nothing.

Turning around, she kneels down and looks straight at his face.]

Alright, arms out. Let me adjust those sleeves.

[getting_better]

[ There's an audible grumble of dissatisfaction, well more dissatisfaction, from the child as he complies with that she says and slowly raised his arms. Still not putting together he's turning into a child mentally too.

Cheeks are puffed angrily, red in the face, and now-comically-large pants once more around his ankles. ]

....I don't like this.

[inlikethebrume]

[He's definitely acting like one more and more but she takes the fabric in her hands and adjusts them accordingly.]

The feeling sometimes is horrible but everyone needs assistance at some point or another.

[He's lucky she is only adjusting his sleeves and not his pants also.]

[getting_better]

[ He grumbles, pouts, and wants to stomp whilst declaring he doesn't need help because he's a grown up, but he is having a hard time balancing uncooperative fabrics. And Mira is also the only grown up nearby. ]

....I don't need help.

[ Now he's just being difficult, much like he was at that age. ]