The Spooky Night Scare Celebration

[de_lux]

Warnings: SPOOPY. Also potential violence and/or drinking.

Location: Various locations in Freesia, especially the Park and Cathedral.

Characters: Anyone and everyone and Lux.

When: Night of September 9

Summary: Most of Freesia is celebrating tonight. Ward off the darkness with lanterns and masks and maybe chat with the local light god.

In a change from their usual behavior, the citizens of Freesia are out and about during the night in order to celebrate another festival.

Called “Spooky Night,” the atmosphere of this holiday may seem familiar to some of Freesia's outsiders. Lanterns patterned after all manner of monsters and other creepy things are visible everywhere, resting on doorsteps, hung from trees, placed in windows, and there are smaller ones strung between buildings and across streets.

Equally creepy masks abound as well. They're mostly worn by the children, but some adults can be seen indulging as well, the eyes and mouths of their masks glowing like jack o' lanterns.

Most of the citizens seem to be enjoying themselves, chatting and laughing with one another, jumping around and trying to scare each other, drinking and buying snacks from opportunistic vendors. Many of the festive citizens have gathered at a bonfire in the park, but groups of people can be found just about anywhere tonight.

But despite the party atmosphere, you may want to pay close attention to the city tonight...

A: The masks and lanterns mentioned earlier aren't going to be hard to find. The lanterns are visible everywhere of course, and more can be found for sale in the shops and stalls, alongside a wide variety of masks. Most of the designs are generic monsters, such as ghost or skeletons or werewolves, but if you look around, well... Whatever you're afraid of, if it's something you can put a face or likeness to, you'll run into a mask or lantern of it eventually. Creepy as that might be though, anyone who dares carry or wear their fears will be rewarded with an extra bright glow emanating from it, something that may come in handy if they run into any of the Nox tonight.

B: If you head down to the park tonight, but stray away from the bonfire, you'll notice that the cathedral is active for once. A very small group of citizens has gathered there, primarily consisting of the elderly- and at least one person you may find familiar. There isn't any laughing or drinking going on in this part of town, and everyone in the cathedral is either silent or speaking to each other in hushed tones. As far as can be observed, they've gathered here to place candles and flowers everywhere.

C: Autumn isn't quite here yet, but the nights have been getting longer lately, the shadows deeper. Don't wander too far tonight and if you do, take care to bring some light with you. The Nox are especially active tonight and will happily attack anyone who wander into the shadows, local or not, not to mention breaking anything they can get their shadowy hands on. A few of the bolder groups will even stray to the edges of the festival in order to knock down the decorations. They're in a vicious mood tonight, but if you thought to pick up an especially spooky lantern or mask before confronting them, their viciousness will evaporate and you'll have them running scared instead.

Comments

[unrecovered]

There's a cut off word in there - M-something - but Wash lets it go for now. He'll keep that one for later. For now, there is sarcasm. "It's almost like magic dragging a bunch of shadow creatures into their city and then closing them in said city in an impenetrable dome would make the locals distrust magic! What a surprise!"

He leans back, utterly ignoring the please go away body language. "But you were about to start telling me that long story."

[de_lux]

Lux steeples his fingers and looks away from Wash, staring at a stained glass window depicting a blazing sun and some colorful circles floating above a desert. It cuts off eye contact more effectively than any opaque pair of sunglasses ever could.

However, after a bit more thought Lux says "Very well. Perhaps it isn't the longest story after all.

"A long time ago I did as you suggested, and I gifted magic to a few select individuals native to this home plane, similar to the powers of yourself and your fellow dimensional outsiders. I granted this power only to a few, and it seemed small and harmless at first. Simple tricks with water and flowers, useful abilities to help out their families and villages.

"But once the young magicians grew comfortable with their powers they began to push the boundaries of their abilities in ways that endangered themselves and others. And worse, they began to deliberately fight amongst each themselves, and against those without powers. The... the details are irrelevant to the current situation, but at the end of the chaos those remaining asked me to promise never to grant any of them magical abilities ever again.

"I agreed to that promise, and as a result I cannot gift magic to anyone native to this dimensional plane. And that is the primary reason why I chose outsiders such as yourself.

"I would have preferred not to grant magic to anyone at all, of course, but the Nox left me with few options."

Over the course of his speech, Lux's fingers twined together and his hands now lie in a tight clasp in his lap.

[unrecovered]

For a few moments, Wash is gearing up to get angry. Getting ignored - again - is not on his to-do list.

But then Lux starts explaining, and he settles in to listen. Somehow, he's not surprised that 'make humans better and they will eventually try to kill each other' is a common narrative; that doesn't make the explanation any better, though it does answer some questions. No wonder the natives hated them, if they had the power that had nearly wiped the natives out God knows how long ago. "And you went with a draft instead of volunteers." His tone makes his low opinion of that decision very clear.

"And how did the Nox get here?" He had the Nox's side of the story - might as well get Lux's while he was at it.