Event || The Festival of Light

[eternitymods]

Who: Everyone!
When: August 18th - 25th
Where: The Empire
What: The Festival of Light is here! Feel free to use any of these prompts. NPCs tag will come sometimes this week. Please mention it in your top-level if you'd rather not be tagged by a random NPC.
Warnings/Notes: N/A

EXPOSITION OF THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT
— Third District || August 18th – August 25th || 10:00 to 23:00 —
The museums in the 03rd District are open to visitors and are home to many relics predating written history. A lot of those old relics are items of archaeological interest or look like they could be really advanced technologies if they weren't broken beyond repair. Prototypes for Magitek Armor of a new age are exposed, alongside fragments of what are believed to belong to the legendary WEAPONs, machines that belong to the same category than Ultima WEAPON.

The section for Eidolons has all the Eidolons the characters have met so far as well as others yet undiscovered displaying on a gigantic wall-covering painting. The largest Eidolon on the painting appears to be a dragon some characters may recognize as Bahamut, he is so big he dwarves the other Eidolons and should one pay attention, his wings are actually the background of the painting.

Interestingly, someone has doodled something that looks like Ultros over Leviathan on the painting...


SUNNY STARLIGHT
— Ninth District || August 22nd – August 25th || 07:00 to 19:00 —
Do you really believe because it’s summer, you can escape the beauty and magnificence of Christmas? Think again. There is one thing all the nations on Vaikuntha are of one mind on: the wait from the December 26th of a year to the December 24th of the next is too long. This is why a band of Moogles, Lalafells, Bangaas and Zoras from all across the Empire have occupied half of the Ninth District. Decorated trees, Christmas music, people dressed as Santa Claus (and probably dying because of the heat), fake gift boxes as well as a very large and pretty box for donations all await you!

Kids below the age of 15 will all receive a gift if they come: plushies made in the likeness of the main villains of numbered Final Fantasy games! And when you press the button hidden on their stomach, they speak a random line. Who doesn't want a Sephiroth plushie saying "You are a puppet" or a Jecht one repeating "Cry, cry, cry" all day long?

It's like a dream come true!


MIDNIGHT AIRSHIP
— Twelfth District || August 20th – August 24th || 23:00 to 06:00 —
For the late sleepers, it is possible to board a special airship prepared by Hypellos to party up in the sky. The Airship flies all around the Imperial Territories and should characters so desire, they can ask to stop by one of the two other cities. Whether they want to dance, to eat or to enjoy the view, it might be a very fun and relaxing activity. It is also a very good place from where to watch the fireworks… Or to scout for an incoming Tarutaru and her weapon toy.

Note that all the personnel onboard are Hypellos. They are very serviceable and nice, but can try the patience of those not used to their accent. Of note, one Hypello is green and appears to be angrily stalking anyone heading for the "Sunny Starlight" event. He is quite sneaky though and will always manage to get away before being approached.


MOGNET EXPOSITION
— Ninth District || August 22nd – August August 25th || 07:00 to 19:00 —
The half of the Ninth District not occupied by Christmas fanatics is occupied by the Moogles working for the Imperial section of Mognet. Split for the regular Mognet for a decade, Imperial Mognet has managed to thrive. Imperial iMog Slates have all sorts of functions other iMog Slates could only dream of, such as games, grammar check and that kind of stuff. All of those things can be visited at the exposition! Not only that, but the Moogles are also putting on display things that have nothing to do with Mognet but more to do with Moogles themselves.

Come and visit the exposition to discover the rich and amazing culture of the Moogles! Kupo Nuts, Fur Dye, Fake Kupo Nuts, Pom Shiner, Carved Kupo Nuts, booklets titled "How to Use Your Cuteness to Exploit People," Mognet Bags, Deluxe Kupo Nuts, Sheets to Prepare Future Strikes, Mog Beds, Explosive Kupo Nuts, Kupo Champagne—

There is no end to what might be learned from Moogles!


CHOCOBO RACES
— Sen Riqeaux || August 23rd || 15:00 to 20:00 —
A Chocobo Race will be held all around the city! Will you compete? Shall you win? There are no prizes as all the money earned through the race is given to the Safety of Sparks Golsaucia movement. Those participating can bring their own Chocobo or get a temporary one from the people organizing the race. It will be a very bad Chocobo though, so they shouldn’t expect to win… Beware the Hamsters and Marlboro during the race though. It’d be a real shame to end up getting eaten while racing.


SHOPPING
— City's Outskirts || August 18th – August 25th || 07:00 - 20:00 —
On the city's outskirts are all manners of stalls by shoppers eager to make some money. You can find everything there: plushies, food, clothes, souvenirs, books and even cosmetics. Why, one of the merchant is even selling contact lenses covering nearly all of the rainbow's spectrum aside from green while another sells all kind of swords, even the supposed legendary Excalibur! This might be the perfect place to take on O'aka's Quest if you so wish!


MINI SPARKS GOLSAUCIA
— Eleventh District || August 19th – August 24th || Anytime —
Specially for the festival, stallholders from Sparks Golsaucia were invited and brought a few attractions to display what they can do. Noticeably, there is a shooting stand—Once again, a treasure chest game where characters are presented with ten chests and can open only one-- Prizes range from one Gils to gigantic plushies. The novelty this year is something called the "Kupo Boxes," Boxes you punch open and you get something: perhaps something wonderful like a 1 million gil ticket, more often than not though absolutely nothing. Will you try your chance? Be careful, your wallet might not survive it.


TOURNAMENTS
— Tenth District || August 19th – August 23rd || 10:00/15:00/20:00 —
There is a Blitzball Competition taking place during the Festival of Light! Characters are free to go and watch the matches, so long as they can pay for the tickets. At the same time, a Triple Triad competition is taking place. Characters are free to enter the Triple Triad tournament if they so wish. Characters who know Triple Triads have decent chances to win. And even if your characters lose, what matters is trying, right? There are no prizes to be won, as all money goes to the Triple Triad For Everyone associations.


CULINARY ATTRACTIONS
— Second District || August 18th – August 25th || 12:00 to 13:30 / 19:00 to 21:00 —
What would a festival be without free food and banquets? Not really a festival. In the fourteenth district, there is a banquet and many stands held by people from all over the Empire. All kind of food can be found here-- Refined food, pastries, cakes, cooked meals, etc. It's virtually impossible not to find something to like in all of this, and it's all free! There are, however, guards standing around on the lookout for Gourmands who would be tempted to ruin the fun for everyone. After what happened two years ago, better be careful.


THE OPERA
— Ninth District || August 18th - August 24th || 22:00 —
There is an opera every day for all to see for free, titled "A Goddess's Tears." It is a retelling of the creation myth, but shown from the (presumed) perspective of the Goddess of Death. The play depicts the Goddess as someone who started out as a rather sweet person, but whose life took such terrible turns she wished to die and resented life. Yet, death was too scary of a prospect for her and she couldn't choose what was better, Life or Death. As the play progresses, she decides both are equally terrible and resolves to create a world where those very notions shall no longer exist.

As the play unfolds, toward the ends the story becomes what people are more familiar with. However, rather than letting her die wordlessly, the four heroes appease the Goddess's soul by singing. As the four heroes sing, the Goddess smiles and sheds a single tear before passing away. It is said the play is very emotional, sensible people might want to pass on it.


HOUSING
— Fourteenth District || August 17th - August 27th || Anytime —
Before, after and during the Festival of Light, the characters will all need a place where they can rest. Thankfully for them, people coming with the Curti Center delegation are all given the keys to stay in one of the abandoned houses in the 14th District. Truth to be told however, those house look anything but abandoned. Why, it's as if people had been living in them up until very recently, given how either clean and ordered they are for some, or chaotic and neglected they are for others (Characters who were present in Melodies of Life will be able to notice the houses are nearly identical to what they were just before the time skip during endgame, though there are a few eerie differences).

At least, it's a good place to sleep!


ARDYNIAN DISCOVERY
— Fifteenth District || August 18th – August 25th || 10:00, 15:00, 20:00 —
Everyday, it will be possible to get wheeled motor vehicle driven by imperial soldiers and go visit one of the other cities, case in point, Ardynia! Not much is done over there for the Festival of Light, but it is worth checking out, if only for the Wizard and Jester Jobs. It is a thriving city with people from all over the Empire, and it appears to be something of a shopping center for the imperial region.

And most importantly, discover the official headwear of Ardynia: the Fedora! It is said Archaeologists have imported this fashion trend to Ardynia when they pass by, but none know whether this is true or not. While most citizens have enough senses not to actually wear this dreaded hat, those who do wear it really look dumb doing so. And those who don't look dumb look like they'd make jokes about your pet's untimely demise while you're still crying about it.

Perhaps is is best to stay away.


PARASRAYA DISCOVERY
— Fifteenth District || August 18th – August 25th || 10:00, 15:00, 20:00 —
Everyday, it will be possible to get wheeled motor vehicle driven by imperial soldiers and go visit one of the other cities, case in point, Parasraya! Not much is done over there for the Festival of Light, but it is worth checking out, if only for the Archaeologist and Catmancer Jobs, as well as the Weapon Master Association. It is a technologically advanced yet small and cozy city...

... If it wasn't for a tragedy plaguing the city: cats, cats everywhere. If the meowing doesn't kill you, the constant flow of cats asking to be pet, fed and to sit on your lap might. You may even encounter a few tired citizens paying you money to take care of the cat infestation around their house. Others however are really defensive of the cats and will hunt anyone trying to bring harm to them. Of course, the source of all these cat-related troubles can be traced back to the origins of the Catmancer guild.

But, perhaps it is a story best left for another day.


FIREWORKS
— First District || August 18th – August 24th || Midnight —
Fireworks will be launched from the Castle starting 00:00 and will end at 01:00, everyday of the Festival. No matter where you are in the city, anyone should be able to watch them with ease if they so wish. Unfortunately, it means falling asleep before midnight may be a bit hard with all the noise. On the 25th, characters will be with dining with the Empress as the fireworks happen.

Comments

3

[shinra_dog]

Reno's eyes widen when he sees Ignis' plate. He looks between the food, Ignis' frame, and back to the food again.

"Your metabolism must be fuckin' amazing, yo," he said with a grin. "I miss those days."

A lot. In his youth he hadn't planned on living much past thirty. Now that he had, he had found he had no idea how.

[boomchucka]

[Selphie stops and looks over her shoulder at Red. There's too much similarities between the houses in Aqures Ixen and this place.]

I have to find something out. There's something very odd about Sen Riqueax.

My friends might be here.

[zanarkandian]

"If he was here, he'd probably say 'of course not, I'm one of a kind!'"

Tidus sighed, then reached back and unclasped the pendant from his neck, holding it up for her to see. The silver symbol was the same shape as the giant black tattoo on the doll's chest.

"This is the symbol of our hometown blitzball team, the Zanarkand Abes. He was the star player for years, but just when he was about to retire, go out on top? He disappeared. I joined the team ten years later---everyone said it was in my blood. And hey, he always said he couldn't believe his kid was so scrawny."

Saying that used to fill Tidus with rage, but that time was over now. Now, the score was long settled. All he really wanted was to see him again.

[zanarkandian]

Tidus squints suspiciously at the other dolls. That's not a blue antler, is it? Ugh, he hopes not.

"No, but I'd like to find out. You just got here, right? How could they know you were coming?"

[pishirogane]

Naoto wants to say something and reassure Futaba that it really doesn't matter, but she would withhold anything she had to say until the other girl said her part. So she sits, and waits for Futaba to begin.

.... Only to immediately narrow her eyes.

"'The Next Detective Prince' you told me about, right?" Naoto's tone holds nothing but ice in it. "So, not only an insult to me, and another insult to my profession. How loathsome..."

[zanarkandian]

"Actually..."

Tidus scratched the back of his neck.

"I'd trade. I mean. It's silly, right? And you definitely deserve something you'd like for your first Starlight gift from the empire. What about that one?"

He pointed at a plush cactuar, looking as innocent as could be. Tidus knew better, of course.

[zanarkandian]

"Hey, it's okay! We've got the best medics out there waiting in the wings." Tidus reassured Sora, gently thumping his shoulder. "And we train to take hits like that---don't worry, he's just asleep. See? Here comes the ref to sort it out."

This all sounded totally normal to him, of course. He eagerly watched as gameplay resumed, and he watched a shot bounce off several players' chests before entering the goal. "Heh. These empire players are pretty serious!"

[keymemory]

Sora watched and watched. The blush on his face intensified the more the tall woman went on. In one hand he was uncomfortable and in the other hand he was super comfortable. Did he have any idea why? No, but he did know she really, really wanted that necklace! So much that he had started to pull out his own gil pouch and began to blindly feel around in the pouch. Of course his eyes never left the woman as she continued her plea.

Then, when she suddenly twirled and caught sight of him he jumped, in surprise, and quickly shook his head. “No.. uh.. what?”

[keymemory]

"What do you mean?! I mean, ... It's not hers?" Sora looked to the moogle, a bit unsure before he looked back to the girl. "Is your name Sasami? I'm Sora!"

[witchwithoutacause]

Third District

Amanda's not going to rob the Empire. Amanda is not going to rob the Empire right now when it could screw her friends over and ruin relations immediately. They're The Empire, and if she's seen enough movies they'll deserve getting robbed sooner or later. That way none of her new pals will be terribly disillusioned if she steals a priceless artifact.

That said, she's taking notes for no terribly obvious reason.

City's Outskirts

If she had the cash, she could go on a shopping spree. That's the part that actually sounds fun here.

Instead, with the supervision of Morag to keep her from snapping at anyone, she's handing fliers out for that O'aka guy, looking deathly bored in between fake smiles for the benefit of her task.

Tenth District

Despite all her financial problems, though, Amanda's put together the money to go watch Blitzball. ...she can do this, right? Nothing here looks like it's outside the realm of what she can pull off with a little practice. Hell, if she thinks about it, she could probably pass up most of those chumps in a few months.

Once again, Morag's here, looking a bit worried at the smiles instead of encouraging them.

[keymemory]

[ Sora crouches and narrows his eyes as he attempts to find the source of what the other was talking about. ]

Oh! Wait! Yeah! I see it! Yeah! I bet you're right! That's clever, shoot the missile before it comes into contact! Man, I bet if Cid were here he'd be so happy! Cid used to make repairs and .. um.. what's it called ... um.. um.. readjustments? Ugh.. whatever! To my ship!

[keymemory]

“Just asleep?!” Sora snorted before he rolled his eyes. “Man, taking hits like that knocks me out! But.. uh, well, I guess that’s the same as asleep!” He looked to Tidus and returned the gesture with a soft fist toward Tidus’ shoulder. “So, what, you play this sort of stuff, really? It’s so intense! I can’t imagine you doing it.. well, the you I know .. or knew.” Sora chuckled, yet there was a tender feeling there beneath the merriment which spoke to him missing his friend.

However, he was glad he was friends with this Tidus just the same!

[keymemory]

“Sora!” He quickly states, his hands are up though hovering around the moogle just in case he needs to catch the creature. Most likely, he was eager to touch the creature if the opportunity presented itself. Much like a dog, a cat, any cute little fuzzy thing! He wouldn’t touch the moogle though unless invited to so he kept his hands away.

“Um.. I’unno .. if I ever did get your name either.”

[littlemhigan]

She lets a solid few seconds pass before bursting into giggles.

"Oh lad ye look like the gods themselves struck ye dumb," she says, ushering Sora away from the booth to where the crowds are a little thinner. "Caught me sweet talkin' the merchant huh? Ye never seen a lass do that before?"

[saint_sami]

"That? Oh, no! But, I have a feeling it's someone's, kupo!" Kujo said.

"Ah, y-yes, it is! It's nice to meet you, Sora!" Sasami replied, bowing.

[keymemory]

Well, there was that one lady in Traverse Town before she got her heart stolen right in front of his eyes. That was definitely not a positive association with what sweet talking got someone! He followed her easily enough but his eyes scanned the crowd and the ground for any dangerous shadows that dared pop up. He was satisfied when nothing came and he looked back to the woman and he softly shook his head. “I ah, uh.. I … huh? I mean..” He looked down to his coin purse and offered it to her.

“Did.. did you have enough?” He was powerless to the persuasive ways of the sweet talk!

[keymemory]

"You too! Sasami!" He offered a soft smile and looked to the girl's moogle. His own was standing beside his feet, idly bouncing on his own feet. Sora gestured to his moogle. "This is Nunumu!" He then looked back to the sword. "It's impressive, isn't it!?"

[promiselisting]

For things had been getting better already, hearing Naoto's scathing commentary on Akechi is... satisfying, and validating. Something in what she says sticks in the back of Futaba's head as odd, though it'll take her a second to figure it out, caught up in her explanation as she is.

"Pretty much," she says. Her hands clench into fists. "The plan was to frame the Phantom Thieves for every psychotic breakdown and mental shutdown that's been happening for the past two years. Catch the leader of the Phantom Thieves in the act, then it would be reported that he 'committed suicide' while in police custody."

"One of the last things that I remember before I got here was the news announcement." Even though she'd known, known that it was all part of the plan, there'd still been a tight knot of anxiety in her gut.

2

[suigojin]

['Sup Ignis. Gi here doesn't know what exactly you like, but he's more than willing to try to make recommendations until one sticks.]

You should get one of the dreamcatchers. They look nice even if they don't work.

D

[littlemhigan]

"Carefully, I'd reckon," Castor says as she sidles up alongside Finn, already with what seems like an armload of the day's offerings. "At least, I suppose ye ought te start by looking at whatever it is yer in the mood for."

[acapriciousreaper]

Mojito brushes down his fur, before settling on the ground. "Don't worry about it, 's not exactly a crime to bump into people."
"My name is Kuja. You enjoyed the opera, I take it?"

[4got10]

"He sounds pretty hands on," Chara says, eyes scanning the crowd of moogles as they talk. "Does he run away often?"

[modelcivilian]

"... You want to trade?"

That was a surprise. Did Tidus really want this weird doll of his dad back? Green eyes drifting, he smiled at the sight of the cactuar.

"Is that a cactus doll? Haha! I love its face."

[modelcivilian]

"Pretty much. He means well, but... he has an odd way of showing it."

Adrien shakes his head. "No. This is the first time ever..."

[4got10]

That's good. If it was something that kept happening, Chara would second guess helping Adrian on it. Clearly that meant the moogle didn't want to be with you. But if this is the first time, that's not too bad.

"I can get that, partner," Chara walks a little more into the moogles, squinting a bit more. "No one really shows things the same way. That one's pretty big."

Chara points out to one of the moogles, tilting their head.