Fall into Summer (OPEN)

[kleptofaeniac]

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 1^st 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!

Comments

[goroesi]

"What?" she demands incredulously. "No, that's what they're like. They want what's better for you, so they tell you to not to do things because they've made those mistakes before." Yeah, Maera's a touch naive when it comes to this.

[detectiveofthewest]

"You sound like an after school special." He might grudgingly admit that his parents had his best interests in mind... from their point of view. From his, their meddling was just plain annoying.

"All my folks do is poke their noses in where it don't belong."

[goroesi]

"... oh." Oh. Her expression sobers quickly, and it takes a moment before she can continue. "I guess... I've never felt like that about mine. They've just looked out for me as much as they can. I don't know. They both say they made a lot of mistakes, so it's easy to see that they just want things to be better for me, you know."

[detectiveofthewest]

"I can't imagine you listening to advice." In fact, this had to be the longest uninterrupted period of time in which he'd ever seen Maera acting serious about anything.

"What was so bad about life for them? They had you, didn't they?" And instilled family values in her or whatever, which was more than you could say for most parental relationships.

[goroesi]

"Hey now," she protests weakly, "I'm not terrible at following instructions. Just... not the best at it, most of the time." There's a difference. "And they did live a while before they had me, Heiji. According to them, they weren't really the type to stay out of trouble until they met each other and settled down a little."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Sure, but the way you talk about it, they worked together, right? With the fae involved, even." And a kid on top of that.

"So they ended up with somethin' nice. That's worth something. Some people go their whole lives without findin' anything like that."

[goroesi]

"Yeah. They worked. We all worked together really well." She smiles a little, ducking her head. "They were, like... a legendary romance. That sounds really stupid, but if you'd ever seen them together, you'd understand."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Well, that sounds super rare," said Heiji, looking away briefly. "I mean, what're the odds of a human and a fae actually working out at all? Even taking aside the difference in lifespans."

You'd have to trust that human an awful lot. Or lie to them -- by omission, of course.

[goroesi]

"I know," she says simply, looking back up at him with a wider grin. "Like I said. They were legendary. And-- enough in love to work through all the tough stuff in their way."

[detectiveofthewest]

STOP STARING AT HIM WITH YOUR STARRY-EYED FAIRY EYES. Heiji looked like he was resisting this message, too, steadfastly not meeting her gaze.

"Couple of my relatives tried it. It didn't work out." The words were clipped, terse; 'it didn't work out' had been kind of an understatement.

[goroesi]

She can't help being a fairy with a tendency towards romance - it's just who he is. And she doesn't falter for a moment in her steadfastness to her parents, even in the face of his blunt reply. "It's not for everyone. It's not always the right choice to make. Only in special cases."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Everyone thinks they're a special case. That's the problem." He shrugged. "Anyhow, I don't know if it'd be worth it even if it did work. Okay, you'd be really happy for a couple years. Maybe."

A couple years, in this case, meaning maybe a few decades if you were lucky. Time was relative to fae. "But then they die and you're alone again."

[goroesi]

That last part finally does make her pause a little, a slight wrinkle appearing in her brow. "But you get better. If- if the other person is really good for you, you become a better fae. That stays with you." She's sure that it does.

"And- you're not always alone. My mom isn't. She has me."

[detectiveofthewest]

Oh, Maera.

"Yeah," said Heiji, his expression softening a little. "I guess she does. Maybe that's worth a few gray hairs." (Although that seemed like its own mega lottery, seeing as how you could never really rely on your kids to be particularly ruly.)

[goroesi]

"I'll have you know that my mom has a grand total of zero gray hairs, okay?" she teases, flicking a couple droplets of water off her fingers at him. Her own mood is lifted entirely by his words. "She looks as young and youthful as she did eighty years ago, according to my dad."

[detectiveofthewest]

"That you know of," he said, ducking ineffectually. "Although personally, I think that sounds like one of the perks of getting a gray hair. You can show it to your kid and tell 'em it's all their fault, makin' you stay up and worry."

Was that... actually a positive, though?

[goroesi]

"That doesn't even sound positive, Heiji!" Maera protests, laughing with her words. "And I'm the perfect daughter, so my mom doesn't ever have to worry about that." After a pause, she admits, "okay, maybe not the perfect daughter, but definitely better than the daughter my mom expected."

[detectiveofthewest]

"What? Why have a kid if you're not gonna guilt 'em every once in a while?" Heiji was also a proponent of fighting with whoever it was you were dating every now and then. It showed you cared...

"What kinda daughter was she expecting, then?"

[goroesi]

"I feel like guilting your child shouldn't bring you that much joy, but maybe I'm just young and idealistic." She shifts a little in place, burying her toes deeper into the sand. "I think she was expecting someone angrier. Someone who'd rage against the establishment and all that. My parents were pretty fiery. It's... you know. Don't you ever feel like you're not what your parents expected?"

[detectiveofthewest]

"Not with my mom. She used to follow me around everywhere, braggin' about how smart I was." Or magical. Or cute. Heiji pulled a face.

"My dad, though, he's always comparing me to other kids and talkin' about how I'm young and inexperienced and I'm too overconfident and on and on. Actually, he's the one who sent me here."

[goroesi]

"Wait- hold on. What do you mean, he sent you here?" she asks, her brow furrowing a little. "I didn't know that."

[detectiveofthewest]

He shrugged. "I mean he told me to get out, basically. Booked tickets on a plane and told me not to show my face in Osaka for a while. And other stuff. But that's pretty typical for him, I mean he always used to leave me places when he was busy."

Of course, whether Heizou had ulterior motives behind his actions was... okay, yeah. Probable.

[goroesi]

"... goodness. I didn't know it was like that for you. I'm- sorry." Because that sounds like all kinds of terrible to her. She can't even imagine her father ever doing the same. "But- I mean... it's not like you hate being here, right? So there's something good that came out of it, kind of."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Hey, don't worry about it!" said Heiji cheerily, waving off Maera's concern. "Like I said, he's always like that."

It probably said something about Heiji that he reacted to his father's constant disapproval by treating it as an annoying but completely normal quirk of character, like always needing to drive or saving plastic bags. Everything was fine...

"It's okay here, yeah. But I think I'd rather go back home when this is all over. I mean, London's way too crowded. Plus, there's no way it can beat Kansai in the spring."

[goroesi]

She's concerned enough to ignore the insinuation that London isn't the most perfect city in the entire world. That should say something. "When will it all be over?" Because Heiji is kind of a friend, and she doesn't want to lose him.