Here's hoping the moon won't fall on us again this year. 8|

[i_am_not_cute]

Who: Anyone who wants mooncakes! Or if you want to just hang out and have some fun, that's cool too.
What: Luceti's Moon Festival. (OOC posts on the topic here and here.)
When: Evening of October 7th.
Where: At the Tsukino Shrine.
Summary: Just having a little cultural fun all up in herre. No insanity, though, despite what the cut tag might say. 8|;;
Rating: M for Moon.



[Initially the festival was supposed to be held at the end of September, but, well. Obviously people kinda forgot about it. Still, many of the preparations had been done prior to amnesia striking most of the villagers, so it wasn't too much of a setback.

Luceti's Moon Festival is a modest but colorful affair. Streamers and lanterns of varying sizes and colors are strung up around the shrine and on tables featuring food (like mooncakes! but there can be other stuff too, like barbecue) and tea to ward off the autumn chill. The smell of incense wafts through the air, burned as offerings to deities and spirits associated with the moon (either from Earth or another universe). One area is dedicated to a series of small paintings (done by local artists) illustrating the story of Chang'e and Houyi: the reason for the season, one could say. And there's more, of course, all creative contributions from Luceti's talent pool...

Alas, given the botched timing, the moon isn't as impressive to look at as it could be. But hey, no one goes to a moon festival to actually look at the moon, right?]


((OOC: As mentioned in the second OOC post, feel free to assume that your characters somehow got involved in putting on the festival if you want to! Maybe they helped with the art and decorations, or they cooked the food, or maybe they can do something else unique that's in line with the spirit of the festival.))

Comments

[fierybluebird]

[Marco's checking out that macaroni artwork of Yue as discreetly as he can, when he finally gives up trying to puzzle out who it's supposed to be.]

Yo!

[Waves a wing. Because if you're going to half-spy on someone, might as well just pretend to be a bird while you're doing it.] Is there a story behind that art?

[It's probably rude to ask, but seriously, the curiosity is getting to him.]

[savedtheworld]

[Of course not! Aang's been wanting to play the storyteller. He smiles welcomingly to Marco.]

Hey Marco. I'm glad you asked. There is a story behind this art - it's the story of the moon spirit from my world. Would you like to hear it?

[fierybluebird]

I'd love to! [Truly and seriously, he loves hearing stories, especially about mythology. It's something he got from spending time with his father.] Is it a nice long story? [The longer the better.]

[savedtheworld]

It is! And it's also sad. Take a seat and I'll get started.

[fierybluebird]

[Grabs a seat! Teach away Aang.]

Why sad? [Moon stories man, it's a rule they all have to be depressing.]

[savedtheworld]

You'll find out why! But it starts with two spirits: Tui and La, also known as push and pull. They're each the spirits for the moon and the ocean, and they represent balance in the way they depend on each other. Together, they make the push and pull of the ocean. And they're also the origin of Waterbending. I'm pretty sure I explained to you what Waterbending is...

[fierybluebird]

Aye, I think so.

[He picked it up somewhere at least.] So the ocean pushes and the moon pulls the tide? I didn't know waterbenders mimicked that though, eh.

[savedtheworld]

It's something like that. The Waterbenders were able to follow the moon in order to learn Waterbending, and it made their Waterbending a lot more powerful. But the thing about these spirits? They passed over from the Spirit World into the mortal world a long time ago. They stayed at the Spirit Oasis hidden in the North Pole, and they took on the form of a pair of koi fish that always swam around each other. This was kept a secret, because... this made them vulnerable.

[fierybluebird]

Wow.

Why'd they do it then? Don't spirits try to protect their near-immortality?

[savedtheworld]

They usually try to, but... I guess they did it to help the people to waterbend. They were risking themselves to look out for the people. [He's not exactly sure if that's the reason, but that's what he'll go with for this story.] They did their dance around each other for hundreds of years of in peace, undisturbed by the outisde world, until a day came when the North Pole was threatened.

[fierybluebird]

That's loyal of them.

[Small :O with his beak.] Wait, what could threaten the North Pole?

Also, is it colder than the south pole do you know? Because there's a couple of idiots I know who always used to fight about which pole was colder back in the day and one of them is here so it'd be funny to tell him he was wrong. [No, but really, carry on.]

[savedtheworld]

Well... I've been to both the South and the North Pole, but I never really thought about which was colder. I think they were both around the same. It's kinda hard to tell.

As for the one thing that could threaten the North Pole? It was the Fire Nation. The big part of the story came when the Avatar came to the North Pole cuz it was the only place he could learn Waterbending. [He looks off over the river as he continues to speak.] He only wanted to... to help people, but bad things followed him wherever he went. Usually it was the Fire Nation, and this time they wanted to invade the North Pole to conquer the Northern Water Tribe and to capture the Avatar before he got too powerful.

[fierybluebird]

Darn. I guess that means neither of them are necessarily wrong. I guess Rayleigh just had the best approach about it in telling them to shut up or get lost. [A nonchalant shrug and back to story time.]

Wow, they sound like marines. [whut.] What did they do?

[savedtheworld]

I guess so. Doesn't sound like a polite way of putting stopping the argument, though. ...Then again, if you count small areas, the Spirit Oasis in the North Pole has normal temperature so it's warmer than anywhere else in both the poles.

But aren't marines supposed to protect people? The Fire Nation was getting too powerful, which was upsetting the balance of the four nations and they wanted to conquer or destroy everything else. They sent their navy to attack the North Pole, and a really bad battle started. The Waterbenders got stronger from the moon, but the Firebenders got stronger from the sun. So one side would be winning at day while the other would be winning at night. But the navy was being led by this real bad guy named Zhao. I don't know how he found out, but... he knew the secret of the moon and ocean spirits.

[fierybluebird]

It's more patient than I would have been. But then, that's why I'm not joining Shanks' crew anytime soon. [You know, probably.] Wait, so the South Pole is colder? [Huff.] I guess Shanks was right after all...

Zhao? What'd he do? [Moon & ocean spirits no! ;;]

Marines... they work for the World Government. What they decide is good for the sake of the world isn't necessarily good for anyone else, if that makes sense. Like how the Fire Nation wanted to take over the world? The world government already did. So "protecting the world" often means killing individual people or entire groups that they think threaten that stability, eh.

[savedtheworld]

Oh, so is he a pirate too? And, well, like I said, it's only colder if you count that one really small part of the North Pole. Otherwise it's hard to tell.

I see. The Marines... that doesn't sound good. That's not the way to protect the world. Entire group shouldn't be... shouldn't be treated that way. [But he regains his composure to continue the story.] Well during the battle, Zhao managed to sneak away and found his way to the spirit oasis. The Avatar was there, but he wasn't in his body so he couldn't help. So he grabbed the fish that held the moon spirit. It was starting to die already, from not being in water anymore. But everyone tried to reason with him. Including a wise old man from the Fire Nation who was really nice. And... it looked like Zhao was going to listen to him...

[fierybluebird]

Yes. An annoying one. Pirate Emperor like my Pops, but without being awesome. [All the bias.]

What, really? But wouldn't the moon be important for the fire nation too?

[savedtheworld]

Pirate... Emperor.

The moon's important for everyone, and it's good for the balance of the world. But in battle, the moon helped the Waterbenders while the Sun helped the Firebenders. Zhao's problem is that he was short-sighted, he could only see winning the battle and conquering the Water Tribe. That's why... even when the wise man convinced him to put it back in the water... he still sent out one last flame. And it - it killed the moon spirit.

[fierybluebird]

Oh right. There are four pirate emperors. Or were. My Pops, Whitebeard: Edward Newgate, then there's Shanks: Red-Hair or Akagami, then Big Mam and Kaidou. They're all annoying except Pops, but Kaidou is more of an [Evil bastard, ruthless murderer, conniving competitor who likes to take advantage of the weakest, WHAT IS A GOOD WORD FOR THIS?] asshole. [Fourteen or not, Marco has no mild language for Kaidou.] And Big Mam isn't too bad usually. Supposedly she's doing an okay job looking after Fishman Island now that Pops is gone... so... there's that. [ =\ ]

Wait... he killed the moon spirit after all?? What happened then?

[savedtheworld]

[He pauses to listen carefully to his description. That's some mouth.]

Wow. There's a lot about the pirate world I didn't know. There are emperors and everything. Are they more powerful than a pirate king? But I'm sorry about your pops.

After the moon spirit died? Everything felt red. The world was falling out of balance. Who knows what would have happened? But there was still one solution, one hope. It was in the bravest person of the Northern Water Tribe. Her name... was Princess Yue. [He indicates the noodle art.]

[fierybluebird]

No. There's only one Pirate King. [Nods about the condolences for his father.] Thank you. My father was the strongest man in the world, and always tied with Roger when he was King, but they had different goals. Roger wanted to reach the end of the Grand Line, which no one had ever done before, but my Pops just wanted to protect islands and have a family, so he became a Pirate Emperor to do that. The others have different reasons. Kaidou for power and strength, and Big Mam for the financial aspect of it.

Felt red, eh? [Nods at the art too.] What did she do?

[savedtheworld]

Oh, I see. I know Luffy wants to be a pirate king, but also a ninja and a... meat man or something? He has a lot of things he wants to be.

As for what she did... first let me tell you about who she was. Yue was the daughter of the chief of the Water Tribe. But back when she was born... she was a sick baby, and she wasn't going to make it. They were desperate, so they put her in the Spirit Oasis for the moon spirit's blessing. And... it worked. The moon spirit brought her back, and it made her hair all white. And that blessing... meant that she carried part of the moon spirit's life in her.

[fierybluebird]

Aye... Luffy is Luffy. [A shrug.] I do believe he'll be the next Pirate King though. Pops saw it in him too before he died. And Pops would know better than anyone except maybe Silvers. [And well, Silvers thinks Luffy will too so...]

Whoa... the moon spirit did that? That's pretty strong, eh. Yue must have been really upset about the moon spirit getting hurt then. [Because uh. Yeah. Marco gets it. Poooooops....]

[savedtheworld]

So he really does have a chance? Great, I'm happy for him!

She was really upset. But the old man... I don't know how, but he was able to recognize that there was part of the moon spirit in Yue. And it made her make a difficult decision. Since the moon spirit gave her life... [His expression sank somewhat.] She could give it back.

[fierybluebird]

More than just a chance. He carries on Ace's will, the Will of the D, and he'll have my whole family's help, and a lot of others as well. He still has a very long way to go though.

So she died? [And this was supposed to be a kid's story!]