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undergrounds2015-08-01 02:14 pm
kleptofaeniac) wrote in undergrounds2015-08-01 02:14 pm
Fall into Summer (OPEN)
Some witch holidays were meant to be enjoyed by all, regardless of species, alliances or preference to magic. Holidays like Lammas! Think of it as witch Thanksgiving.
An old woman by the name of Agatha Chapman was of the personal opinion that there was just too much infighting between her fellow witches this year. Those Circle Midnight witches were practically children! Agatha had raised enough children to know they were just going through some rebellious phase. It would pass. But this wasn't the time for expressing such things. This was a time of togetherness! Which was why Agatha had, through her daughters and granddaughters, sent a very public invitation to the supernatural community:
~Lammas Day Celebration~
Come celebrate the great tradition of the first harvest and shorter days with a beach party and bonfire!
Food, fun, and sun! No limits on guests, bring your friends!
AUGUST 1st 2015
12 PM - 2 AM
(public rituals @ 10 PM)
KINGSGATE CASTLE, JOSS GAP ROAD.
BROADSTAIRS.
KENT.
Transportation from the city will be provided from Victoria Station. Present this invitation at the ticket office.
You totally want to go right?
Like the invitation said, all guests transportation will be provided. The train happens to go directly from Victoria Station to the castle, which totals up to a two hour trip - giving plenty of time for people to run into one another on this train-ride. Let's get along everyone.
Upon the guests arrival everyone is greeted by the hostess; a very old, very cheerful lady who insists on being called Ms. Agatha. She introduces her daughters and their daughters. Hit on them at your own peril. After the brief introduction and delicately worded warning that no witch need reveal their coven to others, and no one need attempt to confront them about their choices, everyone is invited down the side of the slow incline of the cliffs to the beach. Time to have fun.
Lammas was traditionally a holiday to celebrate the last day of the wheat harvest. It seems like the witches hosting this party went all out in incorporating that. Golden colored canopies cover the tables that are set out for food. Along with them are large punch bowls filled with different colored liquids and a small bar for anyone who wants something a little stronger than fruit, both of which are abundant - after all this holiday was centered around a community feast. There seems to be a general theme following the decor; apples, cinnamon, and vanilla feature heavily in every dessert of pies, cakes, puddings and ice cream in very creative ways. The more savory foods, less so. But they all fall into the category of typical beach party foods.
There is a changing area towards the face of the cliffs along with bathrooms.
Another fun tradition of Lammas is competitive and athletic games! There are two volleyball nets set up, and what looks like an area for sandcastle building. The team that wins the most games, and the person who builds the best sandcastle wins a prize! The prize is a Maen Magl necklace. The stone is said to bring good luck and good health to the owner. Additionally, they can cure diseases of the eye if rubbed on one's eyelids.
If you're not interested in games, there's always the golden sand to relax and tan on and the water to swim in!
Later, after the sun sets a bonfire is constructed - you can help, but enough driftwood has been collected for the fire itself. As the sun sets, the women hosting the event let everyone know what the purpose of it is. The fire is meant to - while also help people make amazing smores, roasted corn, and apples wrapped in foil - allow the witches and everyone else in attendance to participate in the Lammas rituals. Everyone is encouraged to engage in the rituals, though no one is required to do so.
Nowadays, Lammas is the time to cast off bad habits, thoughts, and what is no longer needed in your life. This spiritual cleansing is represented by fire, and burning things. There are two that will be done tonight, but they won't take longer than thirty minutes when alls said and done. They maybe be performed in any order.
A ritual called 'Winnowing' is meant to cleanse, where everyone writes down negative emotions and bad habits they want to lose on a piece of paper. The witches in the group will all know the chant:
Blessing and curses
Come from the harvest
Return to the earth
To nourish next years
The paper is then thrown into the fire, where it will spark and disintegrate.
The second is highly encouraged for everyone to participate in, as the more people who do so, the more the blessings will be! Everyone is given nine sheaths of wheat, which they are to weave into a braid, and then attach a ribbon to the base of the braid. The witches in the circle around the bonfire should, as the braids are being done, chant:
We weave you and hail you
As queen of the corn
When all's gathered in and
When you are sown.
Once the braids are done, those that weaved them are meant to grab a piece of paper and write what blessing they wish for their friends to have, such as 'Friendship' or 'Mobility'. They must keep the blessing secret and secure it to the ribbon. The ribbons are meant to be kept till Imbolc - another witch holiday - and then be burned, while the ashes are meant to be kept on the individual until the next Lammas. Hope you'll attend that party wherever it is!
After the Ritual, there are plenty of smores to make and some lovely music to listen to while everyone gathers around the bonfire and relaxes until they want to leave. There is no curfew, but the witches hosting the party will be going back up to their flat in the castle around two in the morning.
Happy Lammas!
An old woman by the name of Agatha Chapman was of the personal opinion that there was just too much infighting between her fellow witches this year. Those Circle Midnight witches were practically children! Agatha had raised enough children to know they were just going through some rebellious phase. It would pass. But this wasn't the time for expressing such things. This was a time of togetherness! Which was why Agatha had, through her daughters and granddaughters, sent a very public invitation to the supernatural community:
Come celebrate the great tradition of the first harvest and shorter days with a beach party and bonfire!
Food, fun, and sun! No limits on guests, bring your friends!
AUGUST 1st 2015
12 PM - 2 AM
(public rituals @ 10 PM)
KINGSGATE CASTLE, JOSS GAP ROAD.
BROADSTAIRS.
KENT.
Transportation from the city will be provided from Victoria Station. Present this invitation at the ticket office.
You totally want to go right?
Like the invitation said, all guests transportation will be provided. The train happens to go directly from Victoria Station to the castle, which totals up to a two hour trip - giving plenty of time for people to run into one another on this train-ride. Let's get along everyone.
Upon the guests arrival everyone is greeted by the hostess; a very old, very cheerful lady who insists on being called Ms. Agatha. She introduces her daughters and their daughters. Hit on them at your own peril. After the brief introduction and delicately worded warning that no witch need reveal their coven to others, and no one need attempt to confront them about their choices, everyone is invited down the side of the slow incline of the cliffs to the beach. Time to have fun.
Lammas was traditionally a holiday to celebrate the last day of the wheat harvest. It seems like the witches hosting this party went all out in incorporating that. Golden colored canopies cover the tables that are set out for food. Along with them are large punch bowls filled with different colored liquids and a small bar for anyone who wants something a little stronger than fruit, both of which are abundant - after all this holiday was centered around a community feast. There seems to be a general theme following the decor; apples, cinnamon, and vanilla feature heavily in every dessert of pies, cakes, puddings and ice cream in very creative ways. The more savory foods, less so. But they all fall into the category of typical beach party foods.
There is a changing area towards the face of the cliffs along with bathrooms.
Another fun tradition of Lammas is competitive and athletic games! There are two volleyball nets set up, and what looks like an area for sandcastle building. The team that wins the most games, and the person who builds the best sandcastle wins a prize! The prize is a Maen Magl necklace. The stone is said to bring good luck and good health to the owner. Additionally, they can cure diseases of the eye if rubbed on one's eyelids.
If you're not interested in games, there's always the golden sand to relax and tan on and the water to swim in!
Later, after the sun sets a bonfire is constructed - you can help, but enough driftwood has been collected for the fire itself. As the sun sets, the women hosting the event let everyone know what the purpose of it is. The fire is meant to - while also help people make amazing smores, roasted corn, and apples wrapped in foil - allow the witches and everyone else in attendance to participate in the Lammas rituals. Everyone is encouraged to engage in the rituals, though no one is required to do so.
Nowadays, Lammas is the time to cast off bad habits, thoughts, and what is no longer needed in your life. This spiritual cleansing is represented by fire, and burning things. There are two that will be done tonight, but they won't take longer than thirty minutes when alls said and done. They maybe be performed in any order.
A ritual called 'Winnowing' is meant to cleanse, where everyone writes down negative emotions and bad habits they want to lose on a piece of paper. The witches in the group will all know the chant:
Blessing and curses
Come from the harvest
Return to the earth
To nourish next years
The paper is then thrown into the fire, where it will spark and disintegrate.
The second is highly encouraged for everyone to participate in, as the more people who do so, the more the blessings will be! Everyone is given nine sheaths of wheat, which they are to weave into a braid, and then attach a ribbon to the base of the braid. The witches in the circle around the bonfire should, as the braids are being done, chant:
We weave you and hail you
As queen of the corn
When all's gathered in and
When you are sown.
Once the braids are done, those that weaved them are meant to grab a piece of paper and write what blessing they wish for their friends to have, such as 'Friendship' or 'Mobility'. They must keep the blessing secret and secure it to the ribbon. The ribbons are meant to be kept till Imbolc - another witch holiday - and then be burned, while the ashes are meant to be kept on the individual until the next Lammas. Hope you'll attend that party wherever it is!
After the Ritual, there are plenty of smores to make and some lovely music to listen to while everyone gathers around the bonfire and relaxes until they want to leave. There is no curfew, but the witches hosting the party will be going back up to their flat in the castle around two in the morning.
Happy Lammas!
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Heiji wasn't particularly interested in sand castles, but he did seem interested in the beach. He sat back on a brightly-colored towel, clad in a pair of dark blue swim trunks that were riding just a tad low on his waist. There was a mystery novel open next to him and he was watching casually as the swimmers came out of the water.
"White high cut bikini," he said just as a girl with a short blonde ponytail emerged and dripped her way back onto the sand. And for a brunette with a pageboy haircut: "Blue one piece!"
...He was right.
[Have some beach fanart?]
As a fox
Alternatively, a little black fox with a white-tipped tail could be found on the beach, nosing a beach ball around or possibly darting across an unwary beachgoer's towel to grab a chicken leg in its slender snaptrap before making a quick escape. Or it walked along the shore, leaving the waves to wash away the little pawprints it left in its wake.
Winnowing
The bonfire roared, the witches chanted. Heiji thought for a moment, staring hard at the piece of paper as if it might provide answers for him. Unlike most, he didn't have a laundry list of self-improvement projects for himself. He thoroughly enjoyed being in his own skin -- feeling the wind on his face and the sun on his fur. And he'd never wished to trade his life for anyone else's.
But after some thought, he did write a single word:
怨
Silently, he cast the paper into the fire.
Blessings
Wishes made on behalf of friends, however, were considerably easier to think up. Heiji wrote in tiny letters, trying to squeeze the maximum number of wishes possible onto the slip of paper in true frugal, Osakan fashion. The slip said the following:
Apollo: Health and equanimity
Sasuke: Make some friends
Clara and Magra: Stay safe
Derek: Find your home
Nancy: Freedom
Stiles: Your own path
Maera: Swift journeys
Clive: Care for yourself, not just work!
Aradia and Willard: Companionship
The last name he wrote was 'Light', the only name for which he paused before writing something down next to it. Finally, and with some care, he wrote 'happiness', thus completing the set. He felt slightly lighter as he did so -- though that was probably just his imagination talking.
Beach - I'm so sorry
After Heiji predicts another bathing suit, Kenzi calls out in a similar tone:
"Thirsty old man!"
/shifty eyes emote
"Dark colors, somethin' that shows off and says 'not too close' at the same time. I'm gonna guess... black and lacy." Now he did turn, a playful glint in his eye.
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"You could have seen me at, like, any point before this."
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"It's actually a pretty useful deductive exercise. Used to do it with a friend back home." By which he meant he creamed this friend at it. "You should give it a try!"
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Kenzi snorts in response; how can just guessing someone's bathing suit be a 'useful deductive exercise'? It sounds like complete horseshit, and yet...
"So, how does it work?"
You still got her hooked.
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"Like that lady. A little older, more conservative, she's got a hat and sunglasses on and a big old bag for keeping things. Not the kind of person who'd go around baring it all in public, right? But she still looks put together, prepared. Probably got a black one piece."
And indeed, when she sat down and primly shrugged off her top to apply some sunscreen, this prediction was apparently true.
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"So it's just a basic read?"
Kenzi thinks she has this figured out. She can read people a mile away and make off with their life savings too. This should be easy and she wiggles where she sits, eyes scanning the beach for a mark.
She sees a man swimming towards the shore from around the cove and decides that's her man.
"Okay. Um... speedo!"
She calls out, and as the man comes out of the water he reveals...board shorts. Kenzi clicks her tongue in disappointment.
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Some dudes made tiny little swimsuits look good. Most didn't, though. And thank goodness most had the sense to realize that. He pointed across the water to a red-headed teenager with a beach ball. "Try that kid!"
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"Honey, we all feel cheated."
At his prompting, she sits upright a little more - as if on alert - and stutters out a quick response.
"U-uh -- PURPLE TRUNKS!"
The kid in question whips around as if someone had called his name and when the waves dip, Kenzi can see dark purple at his hips and she whoops loudly.
"Yeah, son!"
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The teenager looked around wildly, as if maybe he'd been expecting his mom to come striding down the beach, accusing him of skipping class. When he spotted Kenzi, however, his face only looked confused. Why was this lady calling him out.
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Kenzi saluted to the trunks-clad youngster with two fingers and a smile. The boy's frown deepened and he went back to his fun shaking his head. Weirdos, right?
"I feel two feet taller already," she deadpans easily and leans back onto her beach towel. For someone so pale, she seemed like she was enjoying the sun.
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"Hope ya invested in some good sunscreen. Otherwise you'll walk outta here looking like a boiled lobster."
Well, a boiled lobster with some eccentric tan lines.
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Beachside arrival?
To be honest, he wouldn't have gone for it. Except for that text from his ex. Who told him she was having a grand ol' time in Boston, so many friends and good times and even found herself a new boyfriend. So it could be done for him as well!
As much as Snake felt gratified to continue talking to his ex like a friend, it had hurt to know he'd been replaced. Even worse when a song came on the radio, crooning about "someone I used to know". So with that in mind, why not attempt a motorcycle ride at Heiji's invitation?
"Where are we, exactly?" Because he had no idea and that filled him with faint alarm. He had a phone so he could call a cab but he'd need to know where "here" was.
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Heiji's eyes had slid over the surface of Snake's phone, noting the message. Someone he knew talking about Boston, a new boyfriend. From a friend? A sister? An ex? The thought irritated him for some reason.
Maybe it was because Clive had left so suddenly. That was probably it.
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"Thank you for inviting me. I didn't really have any plans this evening other than coursework."
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"Oh, um. I don't want you to think I was peeking or anything, but when you had your phone out, I... kind of got a look at the screen. Sorry."
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"Well...that's my fault then. I suppose getting a message from an ex-girlfriend about the wonderful time she's having would put anyone in a bad mood. I'm sure she meant well, trying to encourage me, but that effort fell short." He exhaled loudly through his nose. "So then, what will be happening at this party?" he asked, pointedly changing the subject.
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And forget all about any exes.
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"I brought a couple supplies for while we're out here. Towels, sunblock... oh, hey, this sand looks like it'd be pretty good for a castle." He dropped his bag on the sand and took out a towel, shaking it out and spreading it down on the beach.
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"Oh, I brought some snacks, too, if you're hungry. You wanna borrow my sunscreen?" After all, Snake was rather fair-skinned; he probably had to watch out for sunburn.
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"Is your now sober girlfriend going to be at this party?" he asked, with just a little smile.
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"...And I said she was just a friend." Now he was sort of regretting asking Snake to rub sunscreen on his back. Snake didn't deserve to rub his back.
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