melodiesoflife | Prelude || The Festival Of Light

Prelude || The Festival Of Light

Characters: All the "Heroes of Light."
Where: Aqures Ixen.
When: The 3rd of August, final day of the Festival of Light. The Heroes of Light will awaken early in the morning.
Summary: The Heroes of Light awaken in Aqures Ixen and are informed by their assigned Moogles of what the situation and what their destinies are. This a log for them to react to the situation, meet each other and optionally participate in activities provided by the Festival of Light.
Warning: N/A

Where you were or what you were doing— It does not really matter. Not any more. Within an instant, the world around you collapses. Reality twists and shatters... Or maybe you are the one who is collapsing and shattering away from reality as you knew it. No matter what the answer is, it will only take a few seconds for you to find yourself sinking into a void, your world vanishing into the distance. There is nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see. Even you feel different: all the powers you might once have had, are now gone. It is silent, cold and it feels as though life itself is slipping out of you.

At this moment, when it looks as though nothing but a never-ending void awaits you, a red Crystal forms before you. In this void, its warmth compels you to grab it. Upon doing so, you can hear a soft, soothing voice speaking:

"Wake up."

Soon, the void itself vanishes and is replaced by distant noises of engines. Had it all been nothing more than a dream? The soothing voice repeats its call one more time, but is soon replaced with a much less graceful "Wake up, Kupo!" Hand clutched on your Crystal, the call of the Moogle may finally wake you up. But you are no longer in your world, nor in the void. You are before the Crystal of Fire, in the third district of a city called Aqures Ixen. At this point, you may realize the engine noise actually originates from an Airship flying low over the city and headed to dock beneath the castle. As if it wasn't strange enough, your clothes have changed as well. They are now a reflection of the Jobs you are wielding. Last but not least, you are surrounded by Moogles, small and fluffy creatures who are more than happy to tell you about everything you want to know, about your 'destiny' as a Hero of Light, about what awaits you.

Or at least, they will tell you everything they do know, which isn't much in the end.

Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be any citizens aside from Moogles in the vicinity. Indeed, the population of Aqures Ixen seems to be busy elsewhere in the city-- The Moogle will tell you there currently an event named the Festival of Light, which most people are attending. But you are not alone! It probably will not be long before you realize there are plenty of people like you all around, and if somehow you do not realize it, the Moogle who woke you up will be more than happy to inform you there are others like you around. Maybe with their help, you will be able to find out what is happening to you.

— Final Day —
The Festival of Light is a yearly event held at Aqures Ixen to celebrate the victory of the "Heroes of Light" over the "Calamity from the Skies" two thousands years ago, or so do the legends say. Whether people believe in the legends or not, this is an occasion for them to have fun and spend time with family and friends. The Festival is held from the 28th of July to the 3rd of August.

Unfortunately, most attractions and events are over by the third of August. Yet, there is enough to do, should the newly arrived Heroes of Light favor spending time looking at the attractions rather than panicking about their situation. The festival ends at midnight.

Theater Play
— Ninth District || 14:00 —

There is a large theater stage installed in the 9th district-- It is probably only temporary by the look of it. There is quite a crowd seated to watch the play about to unfold, as well as numerous people standing beneath the seats or sitting on the ceilings because they couldn't get a seat. After the audience grows quiet, a woman with long silver hair and green-ish skin steps onto the stage to address the audience.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago! At the time when the Ancients reigned over the planet, when the Calamities from the Skies landed on this world and waged war against all forms of life. When our story begins, the Ancients are on the brink of extinction and gathering the last of their forces to fight. And now people of Aqures Ixen and visitors from distant lands, we proudly present 'The 4 Heroes of Light'!"

After this, the play starts and will last for roughly one hour and a half. The main characters appear to be four Heroes of Light, respectively dressed as a Warrior, Monk, Black Mage and White Mage. Other characters include the Calamity from the Skies played by the silver-haired woman, an Ancient scientist and the Princess of Crystallis. The story appears to be a highly romanticized version of the tale the Moogles told the characters earlier. As the play unfolds, there is a love story between one of the Heroes of Light, the Warrior, and the Princess of Crystallis. At the end of the play, the Heroes of Light successfully defeat the Calamity from the Skies, but the Warrior has to sacrifice himself and die in order to protect the Princess of Crystallis.

Culinary Attractions
— Fourteenth District || Anytime —
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 world-- People from Balicea, Aerilon, Esdham, Flence, etc. There is even a stand held by former inhabitants of the Empire. All kind of food from all over the world 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 until midnight!

Competitions
— Tenth & Eight District || 18:00 —

At 18:00, there will be a Blitzball match opposing the teams of Aqures Ixen and Balicea in the Blitzball Stadium. It is more of an exposition match, with nothing to be won aside from glory. Anyone is free to enter the stadium to watch the match. Following this, people - playable characters included - will be allowed to play some Blitzball Match on their own, if they want to try.

At the same time, a Triple Triad competition will be taking place in the eight district, in the campus of the university. Characters are free to enter the Triple Triad tournament, and if they do so they will be given very basic cards and explained the rules. With low level cards and whatsoever no experience, odds are that they may lose to much more experienced and competitive players, but what matters is trying, right? Whilst no characters may recognize him yet, it is notable that one of the NPCs, Wedge, is taking part in the competition. It's just a shame knowing he will lose in the semi-finals.

Trano Golsaucia's Stands
— Eleventh District || Anytime —
Specially for the occasions, stallholders from Trano Golsaucia traveled to Aqures Ixen and brought a few attractions to display what they can do. Noticeably, they brought Chocobos and will organize numerous races throughout the day, on an improvised tracks running around the houses. The Heroes of Light are more than welcome to try and bet, should they want to lose (or multiply) what few Gils they have. If they feel adventurous, they may even try to enter one of the races and ride a Chocobo-- At their own risks.

Aside from this, there are some more attractions worthy of attention. There is a shooting stand-- Coincidentally, all the targets are vaguely similar to the main antagonists of numbered Final Fantasy games. There is a treasure chest game, where characters are presented with ten chests and can open only one-- Prizes range from one Gils to gigantic plushie. There is also a fortune teller Moogle, it is notable that his predictions will always include either the character suffering hell or dying soon, in one form or another. Hopefully this moogle is just a scam.

Fireworks
— First District || 23:00 —

What better way to conclude a festival than fireworks? Fireworks will be launched from the Castle of Aqures Ixen starting 23:00, and will end at midnight, at the same time than the festival. No matter where you are in the city, anyone should be able to watch them easilly if they so wish. Unfortunately, it means falling asleep before midnight may be a bit hard with all the noise.

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It was only when he felt the tug on Gaara's wrist loosen that he let go, flashing a grin over his shoulder just to make sure he would keep following - he did of course, and for that - Naruto was pleased. Even he had fragile concerns about his friendship with the Kazekage, although he managed to force them to the back of his mind most of the time.

But Gaara had to go and ask that question and he laughed awkwardly, shoulders rising toward his neck. "Ah-- well, that ain't important, right? Uh-- lesse, lesse. Let's go... this way."

He wasn't a familiar face, but he did take it upon himself to greet her. Since Parn was going out his way to try and meet everyone like him here. At least a good portion of them anyway.

"Greetings." Parn had a twinge of being somewhat polite, but that was only because of him being a knight. He was accustomed to dealing with royalty now-a-days, not to mention he was still somewhat sexist towards women. In a sense where they were delicate and needed protecting. Deedlit was the only one who has every challenged him on that.

That would have gone very unfortunately for those maypole dancers.

He frowns a little at her answer, and then pauses to think about it. She did have a point, but he was still meeting new people that had arrived like him. Either way, he figured he should still probably look, just in case he missed something.

"I see. That's also possible. That might be for the best, actually."

He ...didn't like the idea of being here alone after getting accustomed to the companionship that their unlikely crew afforded him, but that didn't mean he couldn't handle it. Besides, they needed Artemis to take down Gaea more than they needed him. He may have been the strength, but Art was the brains.

Still.

"Either way, I should probably still look for them, just in case," He says looking back up at her with a short smile. He then sort of realizes that he hasn't even introduced himself.

"Ah- pardon me. My name is Hino Eiji. It's nice to meet you."

"Maybe not a culture of war, but a culture of battle. And of getting other people do to their fighting for them." Kaji frowns, because there are parts of this entire setup that feel all too familiar to him.

"The high road is a good one, so long as it's not the only one you think about. I'd love to just get in there and see them for myself, but storming. Hmm, that part isn't really my style."

Long odds that he gets inside the palace, and Gendo Ikari is, in fact, sitting on the top floor behind a desk?

"There must be a mistake. If there's a reason for this, I don't like that reason."

…His back was beginning to ache a little, from hitting the floor twice in a short period of time.

Gaara didn’t mean to stumble back, but the force of that slam weakened his guard, and took him down after he was unable to recover. He had been much more durable with his sand defenses intact. Being without it, he realized just how vulnerable he was reduced to, at present. Scowling, he made a mental note to begin training the following day, so that he could become more physically resilient. He and Sai had held quite a few sessions together, but his body was… human, now. Weaker, susceptible to factors that he could have deflected, with his ninja abilities.

“Naruto,” he repeated with a visible grimace, “if this was an attempt to attack me… then I would advise you to try a more subtle approach.”

Hands curling over Naruto’s shoulders, he nudged him back, placing some distance between them. While the gesture wasn’t utterly unappreciated, Gaara didn’t expect this kind of greeting. It made his senses alarmingly alert, as though his body was preparing for a fight. Glancing over to the side, his eyes met Luke’s, silently noting the way he had risen so abruptly. The surprise that reflected within those green depths likely mirrored his own display of emotion.

Zelda looked up at the boy with a curious glance. "Which one?" She turned towards him, her moogle happily going along for the ride as it sits in her arms. It's cute stubby little legs wiggle back and forth. Her eyes noticed the shy moogle behind the man's head and quickly realized that he must be in a similar situation to her. Her expression softened into a smile as her eyes went back to the games.

She had been inspecting a few of the them but wasn't sure of a good place to start. "Why don't we play something together?" It's always more fun with more people.

Kaji roars with laughter, but in a good-natured way, when Luffy puts down his card. "I still haven't figured out this grid. Here, maybe that one goes in the center."

Kaji knows there's no winning the tournament, itself, so he's at the point of tossing out the rules and making up his own. He reveals all his own cards and considers the pictures of odd creatures on all of them. "Hmm, this one's kind of a fish." It's an orange fish with an oversized fin on its head.

Kaji leans back in his seat and shoots a grin at his 'opponent.' "It's nothing like the games I've seen back home, at least."

Naruto wasn't sure what he'd expected, but for Gaara to fall like that, and well - perhaps he could blame it on a lack of chakra, but he was sure he had more coordination than to let them both take a trip right down to the floor.

He was laughing quite quickly after hearing Gaara's 'advice', and although he was being nudged back, Naruto was already in the process of finding solid grounding on the floor either side of Gaara's head to push himself up - eyes still bright with glee that matched his grin.

"Hey."

Gaara wasn't looking his way though, and he turned to see what he was looking at, catching sight of Luke. Whatever it was he thought he saw, Naruto was pushing up off the floor soon after, jumping to his feet - one planted either side of Gaara before he offered his hand.

"You just get here today, too? Who's your friend? Have you eaten?"

Now that has Kaji's interest, and he takes a seat next to the man. "Oh? They're calling us all Heroes of Light. Afraid I've never done the hero-ing business before. Tried to tell them they've got the wrong guy. But you have done this before, then?"

He sticks over a hand. "Ryoji Kaji. Just Kaji is fine."

"It could be dangerous," Ashelia cautioned. "We know not their motivations for bringing us here - if they are indeed responsible." She paused for a moment before continuing. "I do appreciate the sentiment, but it may be wisest for me to go alone. I would of course be glad to ask them..."

She trailed off as she looked down at Shelke. She hadn't been stumped by as many people in a row as she had been that day. And it isn't over yet. Stumped or not, she knew it was unfair of her to expect Shelke to trust her with her question. In the young woman's place, she would never even consider it. "Nonsense. You'll be the first to know when it's time. Merlose will fetch you."

Why was Naruto being evasive… It was a simple question to answer. Gaara narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling a bit suspicious. He couldn’t… think of a scenario where Naruto would be ashamed to admit how he had been able to climb up onto a rooftop. But then again, he wasn’t anywhere nearly as mischievous as the Leaf ninja.

“Naruto,” he addressed in a more stern tone this time, “What is the reason behind your reluctance to answer?”

He continued following him, all the while looking around for some way to ascend. There was a tall tree close enough to the building. Perhaps they could leap over onto the rooftop, from the branch that extended out the furthest.

Kaji follows Ib inside and almost stumbles. It takes Shinji to point out the lamps, instead of electricity. The place looks furnished very basically, doesn't look lived-in. "At least they had something ready for us," he comments dryly.

Kaji takes a seat in the front room, doesn't immediately retreat back towards the bedrooms. He looks back over at Ib, and he is trying to keep his face neutral, but there is still something bothering him, badly, about the implications of her being here.

"So, Ib? How old are you?" He keeps his tone light, doesn't want her to suspect anything.

Zelda quickly tried to settle the bird before looking over at the boy with a sweet smile. "I'm sorry if I startled you."

She gave the boy a wink before turning her smile up at the bird. "To be honest, I wanted to get a closer look too." She traced her fingers over the smoothness of it's feathers until she found the spot that the chocobo wanted scratched. The bird made a happy noise as she gently scratched right under it's neck.

"Hello." Zelda turned to face the man full, her moogle wrapped protectively in her arms. She was used to being protected but it was her duty as the goddess. She never wanted to have to be protected like that.

Her eyes looked up at the boy but she didn't spot his moogle right away. "Are you stuck here too?"

Blink. "Lady Ashelia," she corrected.

"I know not," Ashelia admitted, which was very hard for her to do. "My moogle attempted to explain, but I'll admit it's somewhat...low on my list of priorities." She narrowed her eyes. "I'm most interested in finding out why we've been brought here so abruptly. Are you not?"

Death? This man was excited about his own death? Is this how humans back in Tyria worshipped Grenth? She highly doubted it. The human god of death and winter didn't seem to be the type to put up with...death junkies, for the lack of a better term.

"Are they accurate? Has anyone died from say, spontaneous combustion or being eaten alive by bears?"

Kaji was starting to get tired, probably about to be heading for where his moogle, Shinji, was pointing him towards the residential quarters. But he pauses in mid-stride and turns to look, because Zelda has caught his eye in more than one way.

1: He has been keeping an eye out for anyone else with a moogle.
2: Zelda is the first obviously non-human person he has seen here.
3: Hel-lo!

Kaji materializes at her side with a flirtatious grin. He keeps his tone of voice smooth and low, but tries for slightly joking. "If you're looking for someone, I'm pretty sure you've just found them. Ryoji Kaji, and who are you?"

She jumped at his sudden approach and looked up with a curious gaze. "Zelda." Her voice was sweet but cautions. Her moogle looked up at the man from her arms and appeared to be very unhappy at the sudden jolt.

"Do I know you?" She was sure she didn't but he appeared to be a 'hero' like her, indicated by the moogle floating by his side. Maybe he knew something that she didn't.

"It appears so. Alida insists that like everyone else here, I'm a hero of light. I can't say I recall ever helping this country, but it seems as though our help might be needed."

Really he harbored no ill feelings for being taken unwillingly. Parn knew desperation could cloud people's better judgement.

Zelda knew of many reasons why they might have been called warriors of light but they are all from her own experiences and they might not apply here. "I'm not used to being called a hero." Her voice was soft and there was humor in her eyes.

"Are you a knight?" She gestured at his clothing curiously. Her own garb was a white dress much like the dress of the goddess. The only difference was the ring of armor around her waist and the plates on her shoulders.

"Danger is not something I am unfamiliar with," despite her apparent age, there was a hard edge in Shelke's unnatural eyes that hinted at the dark things she had been forced to endure. But the idea of asking the woman to ask for her, it was...not something she was really able to consider. She didn't want to spread it around.

So her relief was plain, when Ashelia changed her mind. "Thank you. If it is more than two days that won't be necessary, but before that, I would be grateful."

Eiji shakes his head and then moves slightly to the side so she has room to approach the chocobo. "It's okay."

He watches her with mild surprise and then grins when the chocobo makes that sound. "I think it likes you."

"They remind me of the birds back home." She gave him an excited smile. "OH! I'm sorry. My name is Zelda and this is Kopula." The moogle flew over and bounced at the mention of his name but otherwise tried to stay out of the way.

That made sense. The only birds he knew of like this back at camp were harpies and- well. While they cleaned things and kept camp orderly, they were also kind of mean and some of the kids said that they liked to try and eat campers sometimes.

Camp was a special place. These birds, he'd decided, are much nicer than harpies.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Zelda. My name's Eiji! And this is Mogna." Mogna perks up at her mention and waves over at them both with a smile.

"What are the birds like where you're from?"

The unfortunate thing about Charlotte's plan was that she walked up to Eiji who was ...about as directionless as you could be sometimes. He was a wanderer and that's just what he did. He wandered.

It could also be considered exploring but really, that usually meant you knew how to find your way back. He was just walking around the city for the sake of walking and if he didn't find his way back he would sleep in a park or something.

Mogna wasn't thrilled with this idea at all.

"Ah- Um." At least he had the grace to look sheepish about it. "I'm sorry! I'm not actually sure what district I'm in, myself."

Edited 2014-08-05 05:50 (UTC)

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Prelude || The Festival Of Light

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