daybreakacademy | MIDSUMMER'S MINGLE

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MIDSUMMER'S MINGLE

MIDSUMMER CELEBRATIONS

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As both finals and the first Herald approach, darkness and uncertainty loom on the horizon. The celebrations held on the evening of the 21st serves as a way of cleansing fears and uncertainty - a time for reconciliation, peace, and reflection, purifying the old to make way for the new.

The midsummer celebrations take place in Soleil’s town square and the surrounding woods. Students can join the large bonfires set up by the staff, or have more private bonfires of their own if they so choose. Specially treated fuel and firestarters have been employed for the evening, to prevent accidental (or deliberate) arson; the bonfires that come from this equipment and fuel will never catch alight anything not deliberately thrown into the flames.

A. TOWN SQUARE
While the town square is usually bustling with all manner of people, today it has been cleared in order to build a number of large bonfires. Robed attendants stand quietly by each one with selections of herbs and flowers, as well as paper and wooden charms that can be folded or marked; these can be thrown into the flames in order to burn away symbolic representations of bad luck.

Attendees can freely take these offerings and feed them to the flames, or bring their own offerings - whatever they see fit - to burn.

A small selection of food is also on offer - small cakes and simple buns in both sweet and savory flavours. These, too, can be fed to the fire if you so choose, though they were made to be eaten.

B. THE WOODS
For the solstice, the woods around Soleil have come alive with light and sound. The various unused structures that litter Soleil’s woods are seeing some cleaning, too; you may come across robed attendants, older students and various staff attending to old graves and abandoned ruins, or building bonfires of their own. Many of them hold lamps on poles and sing songs - simple, traditional hymns about the rising of the sun.

If festival attendees desire peace and quiet, or privacy to build their own fires and reflect, the woods are well-suited for that purpose. Those who choose to take fuel and go into the woods will be cautioned that as darkness falls, supernatural visitors may come out to share your fire. Though they are entirely harmless and silent, seeking only to make their own offerings and lost in their own thoughts, their sudden (and strange) appearance may be alarming.

C. REMNANTS OF FIRE

After the bonfires have burned to embers, attendees will be offered the chance to jump or run over the glowing coals, as is traditional practice, for good luck. Whether as a test of nerves or a possible chance for a little extra luck - whatever your beliefs, it probably can’t hurt.

Unless you spend too long dancing around on the coals, of course, but that’s up to you.

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[ Well, if luck is magic, then hopefully it is well-charged after all the collective jumping among Daybreak members tonight. ]

No... Never before. I'm going off tales I've been told. How about you?

I've been on missions like this before, but... [Yuya looks back to the dying embers.] Not this big. I guess it's hard to imagine what a fight with the Herald is going to look like.

Did everyone actually get through well in those past missions? Even though I've been control room for a mission before, I still struggle to imagine us all as a united armed force, to be honest.

[ How do you even coordinate people with such different skills, let alone personalities? ]

Mostly? [Nobody died that he can remember? Yuya rubs the back of his neck.] Usually missions to fight things are much smaller than this... or when we went after all those demons in March. That went okay!

[He shrugs a shoulder.] But I think the risk is going to be a lot bigger this time.

Yeah. if that whole bit about the UN forces and how they will die is anything to go by, we need to brace yourselves for injuries among ourselves as well.

[ And death, but that's better not said out loud. ]

[Yuya absolutely expects there will be death. He bites his lip, holding his opinion on the Seers refusal to outright state that too--he thinks the reality should be presented as severely as it is.]

I guess it'd be too much to hope that there won't be any deaths in something like this. But if--when we kill the Herald, it makes the group trying to bring Nightfall around weaker, right?

It should. Though... he's only their first attempt and a year and a half early, at that. There's probably more powerful attempts scheduled for later.

[ He's not sure if prophecies really keep time accurate down to the year, but he hopes it in this case. ]

This is their first test as much as ours then.

[Yuya nods, looking back to James.] I wonder what it looks like from their side... like if they're working together as a group, or just not fighting each other so they can cause Nightfall instead. It feels like I know what's happening, but not how or why.

[ Opens mouth. Closes mouth. ]

... I actually have no idea. Now that you say it, this really feels like the kind of thing we should be informed about...

Edited 2019-06-27 00:31 (UTC)

I kind of assumed they don't really know, either. The seers, I mean. [Seeing the future and seeing people's decision in the present are different things, and even they're not all knowing.] And... I don't suppose there's any hope we could find a way to make the Herald tell us?

Probably not, no.

I think it'd put everything at risk to try and get information out of him - any moment he's left alive is a moment he has to recover and possibly break free.

[ And that sucks, but whent he literal apocalypse is concerned, it's probably not the time to think about ethics. ]

Yeah, I guess. [He shrugs.] It'd just be nice to know more about what they want out of Nightfall. And how many of them are actually working towards it.

Before coming here I'd have answered "I assume it's all of them", but we have such a fair share of Outland creatures in our school that I'm honestly not quite as certain anymore.

Not what I really expected, for this place to make me feel less certain instead of more.

Eh, no way! [Yuya laughs a little suddenly.] Is this the first time you've met anything from the Outlands? Anything supernatural? Most of the people from there aren't bad at all.

I grew up knowing of the Outlands more than anything. My dad was pretty strict about not getting me actively involved at too young an age. So most of my information was books and tales from work, rather than direct contact.

[Yuya glances down, briefly, the up at James. The mirth fades from his face completely.]

Is that how your dad sees this? Something scary you have to fight when you're old enough to be ready?

[Not just certain daemons, or just Nightfall. All of it?]

I'm... not totally sure.

[ With the way the Griffin household is structured, James never really had a proper heart-to-heart with his father about any of this. They'd been teacher and student as much if not more than father and son. ]

He's very focused on protecting humans from what's out there, is the thing. Anything that doesn't threaten humans doesn't really matter to him one way or another. There are nonhumans in the Garrison somewhere as well, but it's simply... not his priority.

[Yuya pauses, tilting his head as he considers it. There's things out there to protect people from, sure, but those things often don't really just target humans.

Then he smiles a little, turning to the first and whistling.] Hey, Odd Eyes!

[He waves at the shadow between the trees, and then a lengthy, red, ten foot dragon without wings creeps out of them.

He comes up to Yuya, lowering his head so Yuya can rub his snout. Yuya looks back to James with a wide grin.]

Odd Eyes is my familiar, but he's actually from the Outlands. He lived there his whole life before I bonded with him.

[ James looks startled for a moment, but the confusion quickly turns to fascination as he studies the way Odd Eyes looks and moves. It's James' first time seeing a dragon in the flesh. Though Keith and James have recently acquired an Outland pet of their own, Cosmo is still very clearly a wolf. Dragons are much more foreign.

James holds out his hand for Odd Eyes to sniff, because that's how you deal with animals, right? ]

How did you find him then?

I summoned him. [He rubs under Odd Eyes' jaw while his familiar turns to James and snorts at his hand.] I learned magic from other Tamers. I was ten when I felt confident enough to try, so I drew a circle in the forest and I did.

[That could have ended badly for him! But he tries to focus on the positive.]

All on your own...? That doesn't seem safe.

[ Sorry Yuya, James has a habit of saying these things out loud. He's also still mesmerized by Odd Eyes, reaching out a finger to gently gently boop the head. ]

It probably wasn't. [Yuya laughs faintly.] But not because of Odd Eyes himself. He's not hurtful like that, you know. And anyway, we've lived together all this time now, so I'm very happy we met.

[That wouldn't have been possible if he stayed so distant to anything related to the Outlands. He could have even learned magic without being curious about what's out there, but there isn't any gain in refusing it.]

Next time there's a field trip out there, you should go. It's pretty amazing.

Under supervision...? Yeah, sure.

[ Because doing things with teachers and under orders is important!! Even if it turned out fine for Yuya here, there is a reason protocol exists, etc etc etc. James is a boring guy. ]

My roommate brought home a wolf puppy from the Outlands lately... I was also worried about safety there, but the puppy seems to be doing fine and he's really a friendly little guy.

Because most of what lives in the Outlands aren't bloodthirsty killers. [He looks over his shoulder, raising a brow with a wry expression.] Just like most people aren't. That's why we have so many teachers and students that come from there, helping stop Nightfall too. Right?

[To Yuya, the Outlands are like visiting another country. Things will be different, there may be dangers you don't experience in your own home, but there's also so much to see and know and the people are vibrant and interesting.]

Makes sense, but the fact is still that something out there wants to kill us all and has definitely not been stopped. That's... hard to overlook, you know?

[ Though he does wonder about the details now. ]

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