Imbolc

[undergroundmods]

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The festival of Imbolc marks the end of winter and the coming of spring. It may not seem like it, but the days are getting longer and winter's grip is beginning to thaw. What better time to celebrate new beginnings and make a fresh start?

That's exactly what the witch community is doing, as Samantha Okeke takes her place as the newly anointed Mother of Witches. The event is being held at the Redbright Institute, courtesy of Sylvia Redbright the previous Mother, and will take place entirely outside. Carefully placed warming spells ensure that the air temperature in the grounds is comfortable rather than freezing.

The event begins at 5pm (after sunset at 16.52) and finishes at 8pm.

Order of Events
5pm-5.30pm: Flowers and Candles
The first half hour allows time for guests to arrive and mingle. The main area where guests will arrive first is the lawn and pavilion. Here there are two stalls selling a variety of early spring flowers and candles. A third stall is selling hot drinks where you can buy tea, coffee or brandy, a fourth is selling a variety of fruitcakes, cupcakes and seed cakes, and a fifth is doing excellent business selling plant pots filled with earth blessed by the new Mother of Witches and a variety of plant seeds. A sign on the stalls proclaims that all proceedings will be used to fund a new centre for magical innovation, sponsored by the Mother of Witches.

At the pavilion there is an altar where guests are encouraged to light their candles, lay down their flowers and wish for good health in the year ahead. It is also traditional for young witches to wear flower garlands, so expect to see a lot of flowers around in general.

5.30-6.15pm: The Mother of Witches
At around 5.30pm there will be a ceremony where Sylvia will officially pass on her crown as Mother of Witches to Samantha. Guests will be ushered through to the quad to witness the ceremony. A podium has been set up in the middle of the quad where Sylvia will wait for Samantha to arrive on a raised chair carried by four male witches. Wearing a white dress with gold lace trimming, Samantha represents the purity and fertility of the upcoming spring.

It's then time for Sylvia to symbolically hand over her power by giving Samantha her wand and setting a crown of jasmine flowers on her head. The final act is for Samantha to light the candles that have been placed around the podium, a symbol of new beginnings.

She will then give a speech, addressed to the witches of course, but she is aware that there are others in the crowd who will be interested in what she has to say.

6.15-7.15pm: Offerings
Samantha will be sitting on the raised chair which has now been set down on the podium, flanked by the four male witches. A small white cat sits in her lap. Now is the opportunity for all guests to bring gifts and offerings for the newly anointed Mother of Witches. Every coven will nominate a representative to present a gift and say a few words. It would be courteous for guests from other factions to do the same, though not everyone will.

In the meantime, the gardens are open for guests to wander around with fairy lights strategically placed to help guests find their way.

7.15-8pm: Mingling
The remainder of the event is open for guests to mingle as they please, with the quad, front lawn and gardens all open. The stalls will be selling food, drink and other wares right through to the end of the evening.

Comments

NPCs

[brightwitch]

(Say who you'd like to talk to when you tag!)

Sylvia Redbright
Sylvia is available only during the first half of the event. She'll be drinking tea and chatting to her fellow witches before the ceremony and then stepping aside to let Samantha take centre stage. Whatever feelings she has about Samantha at this moment – and there are things in the new Mother's speech that concern her greatly – this is not her night and she does not wish to steal Samantha's thunder. Consequently, she will say her goodbyes soon after presenting her gift to Samantha (a ruby ring). She hopes Samantha never has to use it.

Samantha Okeke
Samantha makes her grand entrance to the event when she is literally carried into the quad on a raised chair held aloft by four strong witches. She has a smile for everyone and the crowd seem to love her. Her speech starts by praising Sylvia for her thirty years of work and dedication and talking about how honoured she is to take up her mantle. Then it gets more interesting.

"As I look around at all of you, I see so much hope and so much optimism," she says. "But I have also seen fear. As witches, we are the keepers and custodians of the supernatural community. It is our duty to maintain the balance within our world, and when that balance is threatened it is vital that we have the skills and know-how to deal with it. My promise to you is this. I want every witch to feel empowered, to unlock his or her full potential, and to use all the tools we have at our disposal to make our world a better place. Magic is a gift. I want you all to embrace that gift, embrace your magic, and take joy in all the great things that we are going to achieve, together. Better education for young witches, better access to the tools and ingredients we need, and most importantly the freedom to experiment and find new ways of improving the lives of witches across the country. We can do that. We can be better. We can do so much more.

"Let me give you a concrete example. Today I'm very happy to announce that I plan to open a new centre for magical excellence and innovation, to foster an environment of creativity, freedom of expression, and experimentation. We have so much talent in this country. My father always used to say that British witches are peculiar. I think he meant it as a compliment. I want to take that quirkiness, that sense of independence and eccentricity, and combine it with the rigour of a scientific laboratory. Britain has some of the best universities in the world and carries out some of the best research in the world. There's no reason why that can't apply to British witchcraft too.

"So I say to you: no more fear. Imbolc is a time of new beginnings, so let's wipe the slate clean and make a fresh start. Be passionate. Be bold. Be brilliant. And most of all, be yourselves. Thank you."

After the speech, Samantha has something of a regal bearing as one by one representatives from the various covens and others come forward to offer their gifts. Keen observers will note that the white cat that appears to sit in her lap is not a cat at all, but a fae: Samantha's familiar. Samantha blesses each witch that approaches her with her wand, and she has a kind and gracious word for everyone that approaches – assuming of course that they are polite and respectful in turn.

Following the formal ceremony, Samantha is keen to get up, abandon her flower crown and wand, and work her way through the crowd. In particular, she tracks down Katherine Moore and spends a significant amount of time having a whispered discussion with the werewolf alpha. She can also be seen conversing with the various Night Council representatives. Samantha has a plan to make her vision of a new innovative type of witchcraft a reality, and she wants to get buy-in from the Council members to help her do that.

Katherine Moore
Katherine spends most of her time on the fringes of the event, hanging back and observing, though she does offer a gift to the Mother of Witches on behalf of the East End Pack (a hand-crafted wooden staff that doubles as a stake). She isn't one for ceremony or hippy witchy bullshit, but she does want to get a sense of whether this new Mother will kowtow to the vampires in the way that Sylvia Redbright has or whether she might be able to find an ally amongst the witches to help with a counter attack against the Islington Nest.

That's why she can be seen having a long discussion with Samantha in the gardens after the ceremony. A large part of her is happy that Samantha is talking to her at all, which she knows is a ridiculously low bar but it is a reflection of the werewolves' standing within London at the moment. Maybe, just maybe, the changes within Circle Daybreak present an opportunity for the pack to assert itself within the supernatural community.

Others
You can pretty much guarantee that every witch NPC on the Elites list will be there, so let me know if you want to grab any of them!

[dirtyredneck]

There is no way in hell Daryl is showing up to this event in person. ...as a person. He does, however, have an interest in finding out about the new Mother of Witches and being as Redbright the institute had something of an alliance with Hillingdon, he felt a lot safer attending a witch-focused event on their property than he had felt getting anywhere near the witch carriages on the Night Train. So he came as a bobcat. Not attached to anyone, but wandering around like he had every right to be there. It was easy to fool most witches into thinking he was an attached familiar just by acting like he had a purpose. After all, cats - even larger than normal ones - were a very normal familiar for a practicing witch to have.

Daryl stayed as high as he possibly could in the quad during the speech, but afterwards, when the gardens open up, he keeps largely to their many hidden spots. Though his shadow and sometimes more of him could be seen slinking from bush to bush as he wound his way between groups of people and listened in.

If you're someone Daryl actually knows, expect to have a bobcat quite furiously start rubbing up against your leg in a demand for attention, regardless if you recognize him in that form or not. There's a witch eyeing him a little too closely and he really doesn't want to be forced to become an actual familiar by one of them. Much better if they think he's already attached to someone, even just as a pet.

[stauncherhearted]

There were a few reasons Nancy was here tonight. One of which was that this was the sort of event Cooper was expected to be at, and subsequently, she now was, too. The other was because this was the Mother of Witches, and, well, she was a witch. It just seemed right that she go.

All night, she'll mostly be with Cooper, occasionally ducking off to get another drink, or something to eat. When the moment arises, she's taken care to place flowers at the altar, to light candles. This year was going to be better than the last- she still remembered how around this time last year she'd woken up in the hospital. Now, she woke up in a giant bed next to the man she loved. What a difference a year made.

[bellbound]

Mogget knows his way around the Redbright grounds, though he's only visited the school rarely. That's why the moment he's done with the tedious business of watching Samantha accumulate a ridiculous number of gifts, he skulks off into the gardens on his way to the fishing lake.

It's more a big pond in his opinion than a lake, but nevertheless it is full of fish and that's why Mogget can be found sitting still at the water's edge, staring keenly into its depths. He'll go back to the lawn later on to observe the guests as instructed, but not until he's caught a fish.

[falsify]

Despite his massive distrust of the Institute, Eames can't think of a justifiable reason not to see the new Mother of Witches anointed. Nor would he be happy with himself if he missed it.

So here he is. Eames sticks to the fringes most of the night; watching, observing, careful to keep his expression neutral as he tries to decide how he feels about all of this. The answer is tired, mostly. He hates politics, he hates witches, and he's by and large indifferent to brandy.

Once the speech is over and his gift given, Eames can be found around and about the open areas. Partially to just have a look at the Institute, but also making small talk with various faces, familiar or otherwise. He's not doing anything openly shady or making a scene, he's representing the Court tonight so he has to be on his... Well, at least on adequate behaviour if he wants to avoid burning any bridges.

He even wore nice clothes, look at him taking things seriously.

[thelittlemerman]

Finnick's not here on business so much as morbid curiousity. There's another, higher ranking member of the Seelie Court here to present Samantha with her gift, so thankfully he doesn't have to get too close to her and the familiar in her lap. It creates a pit in his stomach, knowing that she has one and that she'd dare bring it to a public event like this, where fae are free to attend.

He spends the evening trying to socialize and be charming in spite of it, trying to figure out when he can make a graceful exit without arousing suspicion. It's an unfortunate reality that he tends to draw attention from mortals, so it's not always easy to do things without being noticed, but it gets progressively harder to mask the uneasiness he feels around the new Mother of Witches.