PARTY PARTY PARTY

[decommission]

CHARACTERS: Everyone!
WHERE: The streets of Concordia
WHEN: Dusk til just before dawn on DAY 040
SUMMARY: IT'S A PARADE
WARNINGS: Add them to your top levels as necessary etc etc


As from the calendar:

Confetti! It's a parade! The annual Arista Parade, to be precise. Nominally a part of Aristana, the celebration of the ribbons of life, it's a holiday who's origins are nearly forgotten. Nowadays it's a big, raucous celebration pretty dedicated much entirely to drinking and partying. Almost all those in attendance will be wearing ribbons tied around their hair, their wrists, off of their belts and the edges of their sleeves. Pull one off, and you will be rewarded with a kiss - on the cheek, usually. The parade itself showcases a number of performers, costumes, and moving art pieces. It's route covers a number of the main streets of town (which will be closed, sorry traffic), and it lasts from dusk till nearly dawn on DAY :040. Have fun, if it's your kind of scene.

From the mods:

No notable NPCs are present at the parade - at least not in any official capacity. However if anyone wants to interact with a Concordian native, feel free to make up/interact with any randos you feel like!

Feel free to use this log for all of your parade day activities!


*moving art piece not included, original characters do not steal

Comments

[unsea]

What are celebrations like, where you come from?

[ This question, he knows, has no bearing on their mission. It is personal, not professional. A lowering of a guard constantly held at the ready, and the abject awareness that of all people, he stands at Lexa's side and asks her to mirror him, might be folly to some. But, tucked into the alcove formed by a shopfront that sells - looking glasses? something sleek, highly technical and beyond his cursory knowledge, there is a reprieve that could be found where there otherwise might not be one. Anonymity, in the crowd.

He keeps a place within his mind open, to show her he has no ulterior motive, in asking her this. He could as easily ask the question of Bellamy, or Murphy. He asks her. ]

[adamance]

[Will this be a political conversation or one full of curiosity and little more? Lexa's eyes move toward him with the question, and she studies him for a long moment. There are few secrets to her gaze: she is clearly considering him, eyes focused and steady, especially with the knowledge she's gained since their last conversation. Knowing how he chooses to push the buttons of those around the Nest has given her some insight. It means he can still be a valuable ally; it also means that he is all too eager to see what might just happen for the sake of it happening.

(She assumes that is his reason for enabling Kylo Ren, among other things. Lexa doesn't perceive it as personal interest.)

When her lips part, it's clear that she's obscured an answer from him to her findings, but that she's acting on it just the same.]

It depends on where you mean. I was raised in a village up to a certain age, and then left to train as their commander.

[unsea]

[ Once more, she's scrutinizing. Looking him over, looking for something that will allow her to best tailor her answer. A suitable venture, considering who she speaks with - he does the same in regards to her, as she's as sharp a blade as any leader worth their weight. And there, she's given him to options. A childhood, a commandership. He assumes he's to choose one of them, and as he does not not know her the way those from her world might. ]

Did you celebrate much, as a commander?

[ He'd have thought there'd be a distance in that. ]

[adamance]

When our Enemy came to take me, it was the Ascension Day. It's the day my people celebrate as the starting point of who we were, when our first commander came down from the sky above. It's a solemn holiday, where we celebrate how we've survived for so long. I celebrated six of them before I'd come here. [And on the sixth, she would either die or be taken, just after allowing herself to be less distant, at least from one person.

Some part of her knew that her changes would usher in problems for her, but she never imagined what it would be.]

What about your culture? [It isn't a diversion; instead, she's merely curious about what he has to say.]

[unsea]

As we all must remember where we came from. Even if you - came from the sky?

[ It's a celebration even he, foreign as he is to Lexa's world, could understand. Looking back on a long history, respecting the struggles of those who came before. It's the thing about the sky that he becomes curious of. Something in Bellamy's mind, about the land and the sky. Something he had not looked deeply into. ]

Our most recent holiday was Maslenitsa. Where the nobility and the wealthy fed their people sweet breads and cakes, and the week was full of festivities like these. Freedom to drink, cavort, sometimes to fight - before the winter settled. On the last day, they would go to their saints and ask to be absolved of their actions during the year.

[adamance]

Not from the sky. Only Becca did, and the other Nightbloods were waiting for her. My people developed on the ground and will remain on the ground. [Even if she is not with them, this is a fact that will remain true. Mentally, culturally, and everything in-between marks her as a person who grew up on Earth. There is nothing else to be said for it. That she's here now and in a position to travel through space speaks to the lack of scope she has for their circumstances, and how much she's scrambling to overcome that.

(And has succeeded in some ways. Others, less.)

Either way, it's apparent that her point is one of clarification, said as much before she presses on:]

Why would your people need to be absolved? It sounds as if they are making excuses for what they've done. [It's not that she hasn't read about religions, it's just that it feels ... foolish. Cowardly.]