OPEN :: A golden bird was singing

[baedalites]

Who: Everyone!
What: St Kelley's evening
Where: The Apache and surrounding environs.
When: Veerdi evening.
Notes:
(1) The topic threads are just suggestions; if you've got somewhere else that your characters simply must be, make your own thread.
(2) All mementos will appear overnight in some part of your character's apartment.
(3) Dance!

St Kelley's is one of the more sedate occasions in Baedal, at least as holidays go. It passes more or less unnoticed by the majority of the population as many of them feel it doesn't concern them. It's not their holiday; it's for the others. Those with severed ties and broken hearts. The temple and church preach that it's a time for reflection or for glorifying the generosity of the gods. It's one of the few days on which no one looks askance at first generation Citizens mourning their missing loved ones publicly.

As night rolls around and floating lanterns are set to sea, the Apache in Mog Hill prepares to accept guests from the newer cohorts. It's something that happens every year, making it a practical tradition. The alcohol will be cheaper for first timers, and the music will be kept at a reasonable level.

Comments

[rhinemaid]

It gives her a moment's pause, more to speculate on possible reasons why she would, theoretically, object to that than because she does; she's fielded that question relatively often, lately, and the answer she gives him is the one most people have received and will in the future: "Nearly a year, now."

She lets it stand that way, uninterrupted, doesn't mention gap of a few days missing from the city that had been months on the other side, how she was still clutching razor-blades when she arrived back and how sometimes when the water runs down her arms she feels like she's somewhere else, slowing down.

It's easier, for now.

[charismatic]

Will doesn't know her well enough to catch any of that, and he takes the silent spaces in the conversation as natural, as part of Ilde's nature. He's gotten less sanguine about taking everything as it comes since the last time they spoke, but he still figures it's the best – or possibly only – way to relate to people here, even more than at home. There are certainly many more types of people in Baedal.

He lets out a low whistle. A year seems very far away, right now. “I'm not sure I can even imagine a year in this place yet,” he says.

[rhinemaid]

“It wasn’t exactly part of my plan,” she concedes, tapping ash into the tray nearest her, “but I’ve heard that those are the best way to make God laugh.”

It has the dry edge of a private joke, not unfriendly but-- not inviting, precisely, either. (The divine is all tapped out, where Ilde is from, dead and dying, and she was never much for it in the first place. She's still deciding where she stands on it with the Twelve Point.)

[charismatic]

Baedal is probably not something anyone can plan for, Will figures. Not anyone he's ever known, at least. There were plenty of crackpot theorists in his his world, but he doubts any of them had an inkling about this. Still, he's perceptive enough to see that she's talking about something he doesn't quite understand.

“I never really thought about god or gods until I got here,” he says with a tiny shrug, not so much dismissive as well what can I do about it now.

[rhinemaid]

“What do you make of these ones?” Well, he did leave himself wide open for the inquiry, by way of his phrasing; if he's thinking about them now, what, exactly, is he thinking? It's probably indicative of Ilde's own lack of religious experience that this isn't something that strikes her as potentially a sensitive area or kind of a personal question - maybe if she were really thinking about it, sure, she's perceptive enough, but it comes out with almost flippant curiosity, offhand and easy, and that's about the level of investment she's traditionally had in the whole affair.

[charismatic]

“I'm not entirely sure yet,” Will says. “Somewhere between fascinated and terrified, probably.” He's never had much investment in religion either, or ever had to – and here, he's confronted with much more tangible and immediate deities than he'd ever even heard of, back home. “Is it strange to you?”

[rhinemaid]

“Religion? Or the gods here?” The answer is 'yes' to both, so she shrugs, a beat later, without actually waiting for him to clarify the point. “It's not really anything I know anything about.”