undergrounds | Fall into Summer (OPEN)

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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 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!

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That settles her fears a little bit to hear that: It isn't a thing that all fae do, that others others can do themselves though what the extent that is is a mystery. She'll look into it in the future but she'll focus on the topic at hand.

"It would be a bit helpful if some ideas of this were known. If only so it wasn't always such a shock to someone if they became a werewolf or a vampire or--" A ghost. It's the thing she regrets the most, not knowing much as she does now before so she could have made faster contact with her family. "--or anyone. So what do the fae get out of it from these deals? From what I understand the fae have all sorts of things by the time they meet someone else. Surely there's not much else to get besides the soul."

Which is a little mean to take, if she had to be frank.

"It would... but that's the decision the Night Council made. Absolute secrecy." What a wonderful concept.

"It depends on what the fae wants. Or needs. Like that Steffie guy -- if he needs to eat ghosts, he might be doin' it for food. Some of them do it because they set their eyes on something rare or one-of-a-kind. Or because it's their nature. Maybe they wanna be malicious or reward others. The problem is that people group all fae together, even the ones who're totally different from each other."

"So no brochures on Ghosting 101? Phooey; there goes my plans to sell a pretty pence on the ghost knowledge market." A little weak, she knows. She's still going to try to inject some humour into the conversation on her side, not wanting to be a total Debbie Downer.

A little hard to not do when she hears the reasons Heiji lists out. Food?!

She gulps, the sound audible though she has no real throat to swallow wit, and tries to keep her wits together as she takes stock of what he told her. It... It makes a lot of sense, really. Different motives and reasons for beings, for others. It isn't fair to paint broad brushstrokes of presumption and thought to one group just because. It isn't fair. Not all fae.

"Different strokes for different folks, then. That's understandable. It's like presuming all vampires drink human blood or all shapeshifters are werewolves. Just because it's seen or done more, it doesn't make it the set standard." She smiles, genuine warmth coming to her eyes. "Or expecting all ghosts to be scary and menacing."

"Yeah. That's why it's way more important to know who you're dealin' with. Or even better, try to make trades like that in the first place." Heiji put his hands in his pockets. "Kind of a good rule in general, actually. If you want something, you should work hard and obtain it yourself. Not rely on wishes. Plus..."

He paused for a moment before he continued. "Plus, it's just not a good way to go through life. If you act out of your own kindness, you'll always gain something. But if you're just tryin' to figure out how to get things out of people, you'll always be courting misfortune. That's what I think."

"That makes sense," she says, musing over it. Better to get if yourself and try no matter what than to hope someone's generosity won't have too many strings attached. "Working hard is the best way to go about getting something you want most of the time.

"Though I can understand how people would go to those lengths: There were sometimes I would have given an arm and a leg for something that I thought I needed back then. After I thought I did everything I could but it didn't work out for some reason." Enough money to pay the bills. A chance to be alive again. Those urges have come and gone but when they came, they hit her hard. "Time, sooner or later, will right things up but that's the dilemma isn't it?"

Time. Not everyone has the time to wait or to hope or to work until the darkness of the evening.

"Maybe. But if you do find yourself in a situation like that, and ya see a way out that seems too good to be true... well, it probably is." He shook his head. "Like goin' to a loan shark or trying to win a bunch of money at the casino. Best for everyone to just avoid the temptation."

But there would always be those who were too desperate or too driven to resort to any other means.

"By the way, you haven't asked about me. That because you already know?" Or were perhaps afraid to know?

Now she can't help but imagine fae loansharks in her head. Shaking down pixies or scaring a nuno. Or maybe the loansharks were the nuno! The thought almost makes her laugh.

Until his question comes. She seems a bit taken back by it as she considers it. Why did she never ask him personally…? Out of everyone she knew, he had been, time and again, the most open and honest about things if asked or you spoke to him long enough.

"I-- I guess I was rather scared to ask," she finally says. "I don't know the etiquette for these things. Do I just ask? Do I wait until someone says something? When a relevant topic comes up to try? I didn't want to offend you or anyone in case."

"I guess you might as well, if you were wonderin' about it. I don't like the way a lot of people ask me that kinda thing -- they're always like 'what are you' or they just flat-out demand things like it's their right to know." It was super rude, but somehow it was okay if it was a human asking a fae.

"I don't eat souls or anything, but if a witch summoned me, I'd have to abide by their commands. That's how come I don't every tell anyone my real name. You ever want to see a friendship go down the tubes real fast, you give one party the power to issue commands to the other." And unfortunately, Heiji didn't know anyone he trusted to be incorruptible with that kind of knowledge.

"Real name..."

So Heiji's name isn't his real name? It never crossed her name that he wouldn't offer it to her or would plan never to. She looks hurt for a second but she shakes her head because she understands his concern if that's the case. "Of course. Better to be safe than sorry."

Considering people, or beings, he may know. She herself knows by now not to give her full name to people unless she wants to invite trouble down the road.

It gives her an idea of how things work, small yet significant this is. Steffi's name isn't Steffi if she thinks about his point of view, knowing better to let people get the upper hand of him. The name makes more sense now to her. "From what I understand so far, magic is a two way street for all parties. Meaning if you know someone's real name you can do the same to them... I think."

The hurt, unfortunately, went all around. Not being able to tell people his real name set Heiji apart from them. It was an uncomfortable feeling of separation that he could do little about; telling someone could make them a target as well as be a source of temptation.

"Not exactly. You either have the ability, or you learn the magic. Either way, it's not something you're supposed to do." At least according to the Night Council's official rules.

"Ahh." She can see the logic of trying to stop that from being a common practice. It wouldn't be safe if people were simply allowed to run around, forcing others to do things simply because they knew their full name. "Not that it stops them, I bet. When you try to forbid or force something to not be, it'll only cause it to look more interesting or more of a challenge for it to be done."

It boils down to 'build a wall, someone will inevitably look at it and think they should find a way pass it.' Something she learned as a mother when trying to keep her children in line. Mostly for Kyle, her sweet hooligan.

"Yeah," said Heiji with a sigh. "That's the problem."

That was why it was best not to want what was beyond your reach in the first place. Reject earthly possessions, nerds. "Anyway, that make ya feel any better? The old knowledge is power?"

"It does. Thank you so much for answering," she told him, giving a grateful smile to him. "And I'm sorry if I was being a Probing Penny. I've been thinking a lot lately about the community and others. For all I've been around, I realise that I don't know much of the others."

Which is awful in her eyes. For someone who wants to help, or try to help, how can she when she doesn't even know them?

"So you wanna know more about everyone, huh? What prompted the sudden interest? I mean, most people seem pretty content to kind of muddle along as best they can." Which didn't really include Heiji, but certainly many humans.

Even most fae, come to think of it.

"Would it be cliche of me to say that it's been the little recent things that have been building up over time?" Clara says, not really asking but asking in a way. "Meeting familiar faces, learning new information that seem to be fact for everyone else. It's been an eyeopener for me the last few weeks."

In a lot of ways and that doesn't include the not so little things too. Magra's plans to leave comes to mind and she shakes her head, trying to ignore that. Positive feelings, Clara. "It's just there's so much to learn for not only myself for safety and preparedness but for other people too."

"I don't think so!" said Heiji. "I mean, there's a ton of stuff to learn, especially if you didn't grow up knowin' everything. Maybe they ought to give out a little handbook, after all. 'Specially for ghosts."

Although how someone would find the ghost to give them the book was in question...

"A book? Like a brochure? Oh, Heiji, that's wonderful!" Now that's something she can get behind no matter what. "That'll be so useful for a lot of people. Not just ghosts."

Metahumans realising their abilities, witches coming into their powers for the first time, shapeshifters and vampires learning where it's safe to go. A brochure could really help a lot of people no matter its length or contents. "Maybe if we ask the big people nicely enough, they'll say they'll think about it. It could be good PR for them."

"Or maybe," said Heiji, "If people really are after ya all the time like you say, we could try and... I dunno, put together a petition? I mean, you aren't hurting anyone, so you've got a right to hang around that coffee shop if ya want, right?"

Yes. Organize.

"Not all the time. Just frequently enough for it to be rather annoying!" Clara. That's. That's the point.

All the same-- His idea to make a petition is met with a surprised and confused smile, not at all opposed to the idea of having some peace and quiet but this is something she's never heard before. "... A petition? Like we sign signatures on a board and pass it along to the Council for them to read? I didn't know they still did that."

It would be nice to not worry about her reputation of a 'scary' ghost getting her into trouble. If it could somehow also cover Aradia and other peaceful ghosts, she'll be 'down' with this as the cool kids say.

"Yeah, I heard that you can make one, though I ain't exactly sure how the process works. I never really thought about handing one in. It's a little..." Quaint? Probably something like that.

"But hey, the squeaky wheel gets the oil." Or the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Either/or. "I mean, worst case, they'll say 'no'!"

"Hopefully it won't eat up too much of your time." From her own experience with doing paperwork, from registering as a citizen to setting up insurance and so on, it often was time consuming and tedious and in serious need of some fixes.

She claps her hands together, the sound soft thanks to her status but still very enthusiastic. "Well! Either way, you definitely have my backing for whatever petition you want to hold with the Council. I promise. It's only fair after all you've done for me since we first met each other."

"I hope not... I mean, how many forms does this involve again?" Maybe he should have thought this out a little better...

"What if we got Aradia to help out? Maybe someone's tried to run her off, too." Though why anyone would want to do that he had no idea, nope. Haunted electronics were the best electronics, clearly.

"If we do need a bunch of signatures, she might know a couple people who'd be interested."

The mention of her fellow ghost is met with a happy expression.

"I certainly won't be opposed to the idea of speaking with this to Aradia and seeing if she can help. This would benefit her too, I bet." Of course her young friend should know something like this. Given that she's still learning how to control her own powers, it makes sense to give her some breathing space and, hopefully, a safe place for her to practice.

"Oh! And to answer your question-- Paperwork is mostly about details, details, details. Making sure you have everything at hand and I do mean everything." That way no one's time is wasted if someone forgets to fill a form or if they're asked to clarify something. "I think this petition is simple enough that it won't take too much work."

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Fall into Summer (OPEN)

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