undergrounds | Imbolc

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Imbolc

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Four hundred and fifty fucking years?" What else would it be?

It's pretty impressive, yeah. Vampires are fun to tease most of the time, but fae are a whole different ball game. Nearly five hundred years is just unnecessary. It almost isn't fair. "Ugh. Immortal assholes. I hope you look gnarly as fuck underneath that people-skin you're prancin' around in." Ghoul wraps his arms around himself as he hunches forward, grumpily wondering what someone would even do for over four hundred years.

"People-skin?" Finnick asks with a laugh. "If we did age I should hope I wouldn't be 'gnarly' just yet. Not when there are fae walking around who have been alive for millennia."

Um, yeah. All fae have a weird-looking (probably sparkly) natural fairy form, they only disguise themselves as normal looking humans.

Just like how they travel in packs.

Ghoul's ready to happily explain his logic, but Finnick's comment knocks him off course. He's found something new to poke fun at. "Oh my god, you're a little baby one. Aww, look at you." How precious.

Finnick sparkles naturally, or haven't you noticed? Anyway he rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

"Are you enjoying yourself now that you know I'm comparatively young?"

"Yep." He smiles sweetly, as if he isn't a complete unholy terror. Finnick will surely lose his will to sparkle soon enough. "What're you even still doin' here? Ain't it past your bedtime?"

That, and a little while ago he looked like he'd rather vomit in his own mouth than be here, but Ghoul leaves that part unsaid.

Finnick cracks another smile and laughs dryly. "Don't forget I am still many times older than you," he says, casting Ghoul a glance that could be misconstrued as a warning if someone were inclined to be intimidated by someone like Finnick. After another brief pause, he continues.

"You do bring up the excellent question of why I am still here," he says, "I'm still looking for the answer to that."

Ghoul dismisses Finnick's claim with a shake of his head, a brief wrinkle of his nose, and a very sure-sounding, "Nah." He either doesn't notice the warning glance or he doesn't care, because he goes on to explain, "See, I got a short lifespan, right? I've already lived about a quarter of it. But you're still like, an infant for your lifespan, so I'm technically kinda older."

Poor Finnick's patience. Ghoul looks pretty pleased with himself, but as the Older and More Mature one of the duo, he's obviously obligated to look out for the poor child. If that means springing him out of here, so be it. "Anyway, d'you need an excuse to leave? I'm good at those."

"No," Finnick says dismissively. He'd have left already except he's hoping a little more information on Samantha will conveniently present itself, so he's not so much looking for an excuse to leave so much as an excuse to stay. That's not information he wants to share with Ghoul, however, so it's time to deflect.

"Why are you here?"

What a good question.

Ghoul gives a noncommittal hum at first, looking away from Finnick. "Tryin' to figure out what comes next, I guess." Truthful, but still vague enough to be able to cover his ass if needed. That'll do.

Finnick nods in understanding. He thinks most people are here for variations on that reason. He lowers his voice just a touch as he goes on.

"Do you think you have reason to be worried?"

"Shit, yes." Samantha is still an unknown, and unknown game pieces are the most dangerous. "But maybe I'm just bein' neurotic."

"I think a touch of paranoia is healthy," Finnick says with a wry smile. He knows more than enough about paranoia - it's only just been in the past few years that he's managed not to jump at everything - and he's decided that it's better to suspect that people have malicious intent rather than trust blindly.

"Yeah?" Like he needs any encouragement. Geez.

Too late to take it back now. Ghoul's looking at him in interest. "You're the one who's got like four hundred years of experience here, so what d'you think?"

"I just told you what I think," Finnick says lightly, "unless you're asking what I think about the new Mother, in which case I think I'll politely decline to comment."

That's exactly what he's asking, and Finnick's answer is more than enough to make him stop and think damn. That bad, huh?

Maybe she almost ran him over too.

"Lemme ask you somethin' else." He scoots closer so he can speak more softly, "Let's say, hypothetically, that you were tryin' to build a case or something against her. Which I know you'd never do, obviously, and somethin' I wouldn't do either." Becuase it's good to play it safe...ish. Sometimes. "But, y'know not everyone's gonna like her for whatever reason, and we totally gotta be ready to correct them when they start dissing her, right? So, hypothetically. What's wrong with her?" Okay, fine, maybe this line of questioning is a little selfish. He sort of wants to see if he has a reason for the distaste he feels towards her, or if he's just being a moody asshole like usual.

Finnick raises a patronizing eyebrow at the wolf, looking equal parts bored, offended, and cynical as he speaks, but the narrative in his head is something completely different. He knows this one isn't particularly high on the totem pole but if there is dissension among the wolves regarding Samantha there could be an opening there.

He sighs as he thinks about the question, trying to choose his words wisely. He knows most of his hatred of witches is because of his past experiences, and so far Samantha has done very little to earn his personal ire, but there is one thing.

"Did you see the cat she had with her earlier?" he begins, his tone conversational. "I don't know if you can tell, but it's not just a cat. It's a familiar. It's a fae bound to do whatever she wants it to do and a tool to enhance her own magic. It's an old tradition for witches, but it's very rarely a consensual relationship."

He smirks and pauses for a moment. "I don't expect you to care about that but it explains why someone like me might want to keep their distance."

That's not what he'd expected to hear when he asked the question. He figured Finnick would go for something more mundane like she's overbearing or she's flaky, but the familiar thing is...

It's a problem, actually. Ghoul's face falls and he casts a quick, callous look out over the crowd, trying to spot either Samantha or her fae-cat. "Why wouldn't I care about that?" The fae part isn't a surprise, it had told him that fact itself earlier. The forced servitude detail is new, though. He'd always thought being a familiar required consent.

He doesn't see Samantha or Mogget from where he's sitting, so he looks back at Finnick with a frown. "She did that?"

The smirk stays, masking the deep discomfort he has with the situation. "I don't know who did it, but she holds the leash now," he says. He's surprised the wolf cares at all - most of them don't seem to bother themselves with the ins and outs of witch magic unless it's affecting them somehow, and it rarely does in the same way it affects the fae.

"Who is it? That she's got?" Gosh, Ghoul, they don't all know each other just because they're fae.

But it's an important piece of information, he figures. If they know who it is, maybe that would shed some light on why he's working with witches. And whether or not he did it on his own accord.

"I don't know," Finnick says, a touch if impatience creeping back into his voice. "If he has a name tag I haven't been close enough to check."

Ghoul had been close to it a while ago- but not that close. The cat had wanted nothing to do with him, actually, which strikes him as strange now. "I ran in to him a while ago, but he doesn't act like he's in trouble. There's a ton of people here, and we obviously ain't all witches. Why wouldn't he go up to a bunch of us and be like, hey, I'm being held hostage?"

"It's likely the bond prevents him from doing that," Finnick says, remembering his own forced silence. It's true the cat might have chosen life as a familiar, but Finnick doesn't respect any part of it either way.

"I don't know anything for sure," he continues, "only that he is a fae, and that he's bonded to her, and that the relationship between witch and familiar benefits the witch far more than the other creature."

"God damn, for real?" How convenient. Binding whoever they want and making sure they can't inform anyone or ask for help? Sounds like witches get to have their cake and eat it too.

He sighs. What a mess. "Well, look. I know you don't owe me shit, but if you find out anything either way, lemme know?"

"I make no promises," Finnick says airily. Making promises is a dangerous business for the fae, after all.

"It's fine." He shrugs. That's good enough, it's not like he's after hands-holding levels of commitment. "Just, y'know, if you can. Might be able to kick up a fuss about it if it turns out to be bad."

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Imbolc

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